MoMA honours Clooney as actor, director, humanitarian
Annual benefit raising funds for artists in need as pandemic continues
George Clooney’s co-stars, friends and collaborators gathered virtually to share anecdotes and praise his contributions as actor, director, humanitarian and colleague — not to mention Sexiest Man Alive twice over.
Among those paying tribute to Clooney at the Museum of Modern Art’s annual film benefit Monday night was David Letterman, who recalled something Clooney had once said to him “that I carry with me today.”
Clooney had told him his humanitarian efforts in Darfur hadn’t turned out quite as he’d hoped, but added that it didn’t matter.
“What matters is you just keep trying,” Letterman quoted
Clooney as saying. “If it doesn’t work the first time, try something else. “And I thought, ‘This is such a simple, eloquent way to express the importance of helping others,’ ” Letterman said. “I’ve never forgotten it and I never will.”
The tributes mixed praise with humour. Actor David Oyelowo, who appears in Clooney’s new Netflix film “The Midnight
Sky,” told him, “I’m so grateful to be in your orbit.” He also quipped how Clooney is humble — but sometimes falsely so, “because he will get the fact that he was (People’s) Sexiest Man Alive twice into almost every conversation.”
Julianna Margulies, who costarred with Clooney in the TV drama “ER” early in his career, told the story of how she’d told him she loved to drive and he’d asked her, “Have you ever driven a Porsche?” And then he handed her his keys and said, “Let’s go take a spin.”
“And I thought, ‘Who’s this guy who’s letting me drive his Porsche? This guy can’t be for real,’ ” she said. “I would read the telephone book for you, my friend.”
Clooney joins a group of previous MoMA honorees that includes Martin Scorsese, Tom Hanks, Julianne Moore, Cate Blanchett, Quentin Tarantino, Pedro Almodovar and others. MoMA’s annual film benefit raises funds to bring great works of film to the museum’s collection.
This year, amidst the COVID-19 crisis, the event — presented since 2011 by Chanel — also benefits Artist Relief, an emergency initiative supporting artists.
Also giving virtual tributes Monday evening were actors Felicity Jones, Tiffany Boone,
Kyle Chandler and Demian Bichir, who appear in “A Midnight Sky,” which Clooney stars in and directs. Sam Rockwell, Jeffrey Wright, Tilda Swinton and Bradley Cooper also appeared.
In his own remarks, Clooney spoke of how he’d first come to MoMA as “a kid from a small town in Kentucky and it opened my eyes to a whole world, a world where anything is possible.” He also threw some shade at President Donald Trump.
In earlier comments to The Associated Press, Clooney said “Good Night, and Good Luck” was probably his proudest professional accomplishment. The 2005 film, which he directed and co-wrote with Grant Heslov, portrays the conflict between journalist Edward R. Murrow and senator Joseph McCarthy.
“I wrote a film about the fourth estate when the other three estates dropped the ball and I was proud of that,” he said.