The actors George Clooney called Hollywood’s last movie stars: “Things were different then”
Though his acting roles are getting fewer and farther between as he gets older, George Clooney is still, in the eyes of many, the ideal movie star. Good-looking, well-dressed, charming, suave, and as comfortable in an awards-baiting drama as he is in a campy superhero flick, the esteemed performer has amassed an untouchable record. He’s one of those rare talents that would have likely been a success in any era of cinema.
The comparisons between Mr Clooney and his golden age predecessors have not gone unnoticed. In the Coen brothers’ Hail, Caesar!, he plays Baird Whitlock, a 1950s movie star modelled on the great Robert Taylor. This also came up during an interview with Time to promote the release of Ocean’s 13. When the interviewer asked about claims that he was the ‘last great movie star’, Clooney gave an emphatic response.
“The last real movie stars were probably Redford and Newman,” the notorious prankster said, referring of course to Robert Redford and Paul Newman. “Things were different then. There wasn’t this amazing amount of magazines and information about them… There was mystique. They’re 60 feet high, and you paid your buck and a half to go see them. But that’s gone. People know everything about everybody now.”
Though Clooney grouped them together in his assessment, Newman actually began his career almost a decade before Redford did. The Ohio-born megastar got going in the early 1950s, landing his first Oscar nomination for the 1958 adaptation of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. A long and successful career followed, including roles in The Hustler, Cool Hand Luke, The Color of Money, and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Interestingly, whilst Newman played the eponymous Cassidy, the role of the Kid went to none other than Robert Redford.
The younger star came to prominence a few years after his future co-star, making waves in the late 1950s/early 1960s. Redford is perhaps best known for pictures like The Candidate, Barefoot in the Park, and All the President’s Men, but he is also a highly accomplished director. His debut feature, Ordinary People, won both ‘Best Picture’ and ‘Best Director’ and his later works include Quiz Show, Lions For Lambs, and A River Runs Through It. He also played a major role in establishing the Sundance Film Festival.
Clooney clearly isn’t the only one who holds these two in such high regard. Ethan Hawke, a massive Paul Newman fan, directed a documentary about the star and his wife Joanne Woodward for HBO. It was called, fittingly, The Last Movie Stars. The series features a mixture of archive footage and scenes staged with actors. Lauren Dern plays Woodward, whilst the role of Newman went to… George Clooney. Whilst talking about the series, Hawke said that his star really reminded him of the late icon, so casting him in the part was a no-brainer.
Debates over who is or isn’t a ‘real’ movie star often get ugly and are regularly used as an excuse for nostalgia addicts to needlessly bash the current generation. In the purest sense of the argument, Clooney, Newman, Redford, and everyone else who has been given that label are all important cultural touchstones for very different reasons. Without them, the current cinematic landscape would look very different, and that’s what should be focused on.
