George Clooney hits back at his critics and also launches to defence of ‘Jay Kelly’ co-star Adam Sandler
George Clooney has responded to his critics and defended Adam Sandler, who stars alongside him in Noah Baumbach’s new movie, Jay Kelly.
The upcoming Netflix movie, which features an all-star cast comprising Laura Dern, Billy Crudup, Riley Keough, Jim Broadbent, and Greta Gerwig, is set to premiere at the Venice Film Festival in competition on August 28th.
Jay Kelly stars Clooney as the titular character, a movie star who travels to Italy to receive a tribute award at a film festival while his life comes crumbling down. Sandler plays his manager, and Dern’s character is Kelly’s publicist.
Now, during a new interview with Vanity Fair, Clooney claims he informed Baumbach about his acting limitations before filming the movie, stating, “I literally said to him, ‘Noah, look, I love the script. I love you as a director, but I’m 63 years old, dude — I can’t do 50 takes. ‘I don’t have it in me. I’ve got the acting range from A to B.”
Clooney also noted that finding a role like this at this stage is a precious thing, sharing, “When you’re an actor in my position, at my age, finding roles like this aren’t all that common.” He then said that if an actor “can’t make peace with aging, then you’ve got to get out of the business and just disappear.”
He then addressed criticism of his range, saying, “Do people say that I only play myself? I don’t give a shit.” Clooney continued: “There aren’t that many guys in my age group that are allowed to do both broad comedies like O Brother [Where Art Thou?] and then do Michael Clayton or Syriana. So if that means I’m playing myself all the time, I don’t give a shit. … Have you ever tried playing yourself? It’s hard to do.”
Similarly, his co-star Sandler has received heavy criticism throughout his career despite putting in stellar performances in movies such as Uncut Gems. “This film, more than any film Adam has done, shows what a beautiful, heartfelt, soulful actor he is,” Clooney said.
The Oceans actor continued: “I kept telling the cast, ‘Don’t call him Sand Man. Don’t talk to him like he’s just some goofy comedian. He’s actually a really beautiful, wonderful actor.’ Because of what his paycheck is, which is doing big goofy comedies, when he does these other, beautiful, Uncut Gems kinds of movies, it reminds people of that. He’s not just a good comedian.”
Jay Kelly will arrive on Netflix on December 5th, following a cinematic release on November 14th.
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