George Clooney has been named the sexist man alive by People magazine not once, but twice. He started his career in the late 70’s but he wasn’t really recognized until the mid to late 80’s while playing the handyman George on Facts of Life. Then of course there he was with the ever so popular ER where he played Dr. Douglas “Doug” Ross, the role that would create a path for the rest of his career as not only an actor, but director, writer, and producer as well.
When we get word who we are interviewing during press events, it’s exciting. After talking with some of the biggest people in the industry, I am often asked who was my favorite interview. That is a tough question, have some favorites, but to name one is hard. But the good news is…this is one of those top interviews for me.
Looking ever so handsome, he walked into the room full of charisma and seemed genuinely interested in what this “Mommy Blogger” thing was all about. Since there are some spoilers in his interview, I will be adding a second post in a few weeks to share some of the things he shared that are specific to scenes in the movie, so no spoilers here. Be ready…he’s a great story teller. So funny. And I should mention, he has a very lucky wife!
George Clooney Talks About the Future
As he walks into the room, he looks strikingly handsome, and cracks some jokes causing us all to laugh.
I have never seen a table this long. Alright, we have time for one more question. (Laughing) So you are Mommy Bloggers? Really! And, and how long have you guys been a group?
2 days
Really? Are you kidding? Uh oh. This could be really dangerous.
We’ll take it easy on you.
Okay, so fire away. I’m ready.
Tomorrowland shares the thought of “can we fix it?” You firmly believe in that with all your humanitarian work. Is that one of the things that drew you to the movie?
It is
And it was your first Disney movie?
Oh, well, my first Disney movie was a Miramax film, called From Dusk Till Dawn, which is not a very Disney film. But yeah, at first I wanted to work with Brad Bird. I think he doesn’t make bad films, and I just love the kind of films he makes. And then when I read the screenplay, I thought, what I love about it is that we sort of are inundated in our lives with lots of bad news. You turn on the television, it hurts, you know? And it’s a bad time and what I loved was the idea of the script said their future isn’t just automatically inevitable. And that you have to participate or you don’t have to just accept how it ends. I was born in the early 60’s, so I grew up in the era where the individual actually had effect; the civil rights movement, the Vietnam movement, the women’s rights moments, and that stuff, and so I always felt like and believed that there was a version of it. I was raised that there was a version of this where you could affect the future, and you didn’t have to just accept it. The Russians weren’t gonna necessarily just blow us all up and the nuclear bombs. So I really loved the idea of hearing this again, this idea that we’re not just necessarily doomed, that there’s something that you can do about it if you pay attention and you work hard. And I liked it.
Was it fun or difficult to be working with contraptions and harnesses and all those things?
You know, I’ve done it a few times. In Gravity, I had to do it, and I’ve done it in a few films. I’m never particularly in love with it. Green screen is tricky ’cause you just have to sort of make things up. But, the thing about being an actor is you really don’t ever have to grow up, right? We’re still playing make believe. I’m 54 and I’m playing make-believe. So when they put you in a contraption, and say now you’re gonna fly, I mean, you’re still a 12 year old and you go really, am I gonna fly from here to there? Oh yeah, let’s go, it’s fun. I’ve always found that part to be magical. I just wish the jet pack really worked. (laughing) You know, when I was growing up, it was the space race and it was everything you were eating, space food sticks and drinking Tang. I really thought by now we’d be riding around in Jetson cars.
Well, that’s what the Jetson’s told us.
Well, they did tell us and I believed them, so when I see the jet pack, I’m like I want that thing to work by now, you know, but no such luck.
Would you say that would be one of the futuristic items or things that would be awesome to have?
Let me put it to you this way. So you’re at LAX. You get your bags. (all of us are laughing) I’ve got to get to Studio City. It’s 4:30 on a Friday. It would be the greatest moment ever, just blasting right over all the traffic. I think it would be fantastic, although, you know, I don’t know that I want everybody to have one ’cause they’d just be circling my house. Hey. (laughing) What’s Amal gonna wear to the MET Ball? (We are all still laughing ) I don’t know, I don’t know if I want everybody to have a jet pack.
He’s got jokes. He continues to keep us laughing. So I ask –
The young kid that plays Frank Walker in the movie, did you have any say so who it would be? He looks like you, like his facial expressions, did he study you?
No, they just went around, actually they did a little plastic surgery on him. [LAUGHING.]
Did they? That makes sense.
Which seems, ah, a little rough, but yeah, you want to…it’s show biz. You want to be in show biz, we’re gonna have to reduce that nose. We’re gonna have to pin those ears. I’m sorry.
(ha ha, see he’s got jokes!)
No, you know, he was funny. I never got to work with him obviously, because we were, you know, in different worlds as you know, completely different worlds, but he would walk by, I’d come over and I’d go, so you’re, ah, you’re me, right? He’s like, “yup”. (so I told him) Alright. Don’t screw it up. (laughing) He was really sweet though. A really funny kid.
What was your favorite scene in the movie?
Yeah, that’s a good question. It’s fun because, look, first let me start off by explaining to you how I came to this part, right? Brad and Damon called me and said we’ve written a part for you in a movie. And I’d been trying to work with Brad for a long time. I was like wow, that’s amazing. And they send me the script and I open it up and the description of me is, you know, 55 year old angry, bitter, guy. I’m like going, thanks guys. Thank you so much. But what I loved about it was that the entire film, he’s just a grump, you know. He’s just a grump through the whole thing. So I loved like when Britt first comes to the house. It’s really fun where it’s like shut up! You know, and like who are you? And so we really had fun shooting all that stuff in the farm house. That was fun ’cause all the robot guys were really sweet and nice, and not really robots, you know. (laughing) And, so I think that might have been the most fun scene to shoot, all the farm house stuff, yeah.
In your words, what would be the message of this movie to inspire teenagers?
The truth of the matter is, the idea is that, the future is yours and the future is yours to decide what it will be. You know, as you look at the world, and you see how sort of, tragic it can feel, and you know, it always has been that way. It wasn’t particularly great in 1968 either. There were assassinations and there was wars and there was civil unrest and riots, but we weren’t as inundated with it, and so there was always still a hopefulness that the future was still gonna be alright. And I feel as if we have to get to that point where, we all understand that, you know, the individual is not helpless. And I think that’s a really important part of this, you know. An advantage since I’ve become successful, I understand that I have a voice that I can amplify things, so I can make Darfur louder or we can, there’s things that you can do that you can try to affect change with. But I was like that when I was 10, because I was told, that your voice has to matter and has to participate, even if two people hear you, because those two people may change, you know. I would say my parents taught me that and their parents taught them that, and I feel as if there’s a world where we have to constantly remind not just young people, ourselves that we’re not just stuck here, you know. I also think we have to find a way to put news back in perspective. I think part of the responsibility of news in general is not just to report on it, but put it in perspective.
And my father was an anchorman in Cincinnati, Ohio. When he was covering a story about, some skinheads at Fountain Square who were gonna, you know, had a rally, seven guys up. They’re saying horrible things, you know. And he had to cover the story, so he goes out and in the camera, it looks pretty awful, you know. It looks really awful. And there’s about 2,000 people yelling at them. And then my dad says okay, and they went upstairs to Carew Tower, which is the tallest building in Cincinnati, and the shot down on to the park with these seven little tiny people in a town of 400,000, are just yelling and being jerks. And it just, a town that otherwise is functioning perfectly and people are getting along and working together and you realized in perspective it meant nothing. It meant absolutely nothing. And I feel that we’re losing perspective of the things that are going on in our world, and we think oh, it’s just nothing but apocalyptic stuff, and I don’t believe that necessarily is true. I mean, there’s an awful lot of good and it’s hard to report good because it doesn’t sell. So I think that maybe along the way, it would be nice to remind ourselves that there’s an awful lot of good that’s being done too, you know.
Did you keep any props or any memorabilia from the movie?
Now here’s the thing (laughing) Disney is very, ah, they’ve got like, you know, armed guards around all that stuff. And Brad is very, possessive of all those things as well, ah, and so I will not answer what I stole (laughing), because they will come take it away from me, but it shoots rays and it’s a gun.
Check out the trailer! And stay tuned for the rest of the interview!
TOMORROWLAND (5/22/15)
https://www.facebook.com/DisneyTomorrowland
https://twitter.com/DisneyPictures (#Tomorrowland)
http://disneystudios.tumblr.com/
www.Disney.com/Tomorrowland
*I was invited by Disney to cover the Tomorrowland Event. All opinions are my own.
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What an interview! He seems so down to earth and incredibly witty!! Cannot wait to see the entire film – got a nice long sneak peek at DisneySMMC!
For my first time this interview was incredible. I’m so glad I got to meet you!! Hope to see you again soon!
White Supremacy is alive and well in the Caribbean. We do just fine in the tropics, thank you, Nathaniel. American Racialists ought consider duhiscitizen-alp in a Caribbean nation. The White ruling families here, ‘get it’. They have houses in the US for a chance to vacation somewhere that’s ‘in order’ but have done amazingly well for themselves down here. There are simply too many resources here both natural and human to allow the fruit of the islands to rot on the vine.