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<\/p>\nGeorge Clooney and Adam Sandler are Hollywood titans who leapt on to the A-list in the 1990s and never left. But they both started out on television. Clooney was Doug Ross on ER, the doctor everybody wanted to be examined by. Sandler, meanwhile, was the funnyman who broke through on Saturday Night Live before making his mark in very silly, very successful comedies such as Billy Madison. <\/p>\n
Put them in a room together and they are a riot, bouncing off each other. We meet for coffee in London to discuss Jay Kelly, a new film they star in together. Clooney plays the titular superstar actor (not a stretch) who is in the midst of a crisis (a stretch). Sandler is his loyal manager, Ron.<\/p>\n
It is a movie about the movies and it is hard of think of two actors who know that world better. Still, when they were starting out, both found it hard to leave the small screen. Sandler tried and failed to break through by getting a part in Eddie Murphy\u2019s film Coming to America in 1988. Clooney, meanwhile? Well, over to him . . . <\/p>\n
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George Clooney as Doug Ross in ER<\/p>\n
GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, I was in TV,\u201d he begins, in that low growl of a voice that commands the room. \u201cI was making a good living, but back then actors would say, \u2018Well, I\u2019m a film actor \u2014 I just happen to be doing TV.\u2019\u201d Clooney was similarly snooty \u2014 he was desperate to be in the movies. \u201cAnd I got to the final test for a role in Thelma & Louise,\u201d he continues, of Ridley Scott\u2019s 1991 classic. \u201cAnd, mother****er, Brad got it.\u201d Brad is, of course, Brad Pitt, a close friend of Clooney\u2019s; the pair will reunite in Ocean\u2019s 14 next year. <\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t watch Thelma & Louise for years,\u201d Clooney continues, \u201cbecause I was annoyed. The part launched his career in film. He was doing sitcoms and crap before, so when it was the thing that could\u2019ve launched me? F***!\u201d I assume Pitt knows about this? \u201cOh yeah, he gives me shit. But, of course, when I saw it, I was, like, well it had to be that guy.\u201d <\/p>\n
Pitt\u2019s big scene involves him being topless and ripped in a hotel room. Sandler laughs. \u201cI saw that at the cinema and when Brad took his shirt off people went nuts.\u201d He shakes his head. \u201cBut it should have been you, Clooney.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sandler is warm and rather sweet, and it is just nice to meet the man, given he has not done a print interview since, it seems, the 1990s. This, though, is my third time round with Clooney. An absolute tycoon of charm, he greets me by recalling exactly where we last met. He should really be a politician, more on which later. They are on raucous form; two legends wired on caffeine and off the leash.<\/p>\n
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Adam Sandler in Happy Gilmore (1996)<\/p>\n
ALAMY<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was f***ing horrendous!\u201d Sandler moans about London traffic as he apologises for being late. \u201cI also made a little mistake: I saw an ad for a milkshake with the slogan \u2018Good for your gut\u2019. And my wife is always telling me I have a leaky gut. So I took a picture, but these tough-looking fellas thought I was taking their picture so they point, and then one said, \u2018It\u2019s that bloke!\u2019 So they wanted a little picture time . . . \u201d <\/p>\n
Conversation wanders before Clooney, charmingly childish for an actor involved in the highest levels of international diplomacy, blurts: \u201cLeaky butt syndrome!\u201d And how does one stop that? \u201cUse a cork.\u201d <\/p>\n
We move on to the reason we are here: Jay Kelly, a film by the Oscar-nominated director Noah Baumbach, the man behind The Squid and the Whale and Marriage Story. Clooney and Sandler\u2019s characters travel through Europe to a festival in Kelly\u2019s honour. It\u2019s a poignant comedy about ego and fame that ends with a showreel of Kelly\u2019s fictional career that takes footage from Clooney\u2019s real films: highlights include Out of Sight, Up in the Air and Michael Clayton. (A similar reel for Sandler might include the comedies Happy Gilmore and The Wedding Singer, plus the blistering Uncut Gems.) <\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t know they were using my films,\u201d Clooney says. \u201cThey used a couple of the popular ones but most were flops or films I did when I was really young.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt rocked me,\u201d Sandler adds of the showcase of Clooney through the decades, \u201cwatching youth grow more into the . . .\u201d Clooney smiles, interjecting: \u201cOld man \u2014 you can say it.\u201d Clooney is 64, married to the British human rights lawyer Amal Clooney, with primary school-aged twins. Sandler is 59, married to Jackie Sandler, an actress, with two teenage daughters. They laugh about the era they grew up in, when there would barely be any photos of them taken as kids, since pictures were finite on film \u2014 \u201cWe\u2019ve only got four left!\u201d \u2014 as opposed to today. \u201cNow?\u201d Clooney says, grinning. \u201cI\u2019ve got billions of pictures of my kids.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sandler, a stand-up comedian by trade who has just been on a US tour, begins a riff. \u201cHave you noticed,\u201d he starts, \u201cthat back in the day you\u2019d have UFO sightings and someone would get a photo? But now everyone\u2019s got a camera there are no more UFO sightings. Perhaps aliens are, like, \u2018Don\u2019t go down there, man \u2014 they\u2019ve all got cameras.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Clooney was born in Kentucky, Sandler in New York, and both men went to acting school. Clooney remembers \u201ctons of actors\u201d who simply did not make it. \u201cThe best actors in class were not the ones who were most successful,\u201d he says. \u201cThere\u2019s no correlation between talent and success.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Clooney and his wife, Amal, in Venice last year<\/p>\n
ROCCO SPAZIANI\/ARCHIVIO SPAZIANI\/MONDADORI PORTFOLIO\/GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n
So, on fame versus talent . . . \u201cAre you pointing to me?\u201d Sandler interrupts. I protest, but do ask whether he and Clooney simply wanted to act or whether they wanted to be famous. \u201cAs a kid? I 100 per cent wanted to be famous,\u201d Sandler says. \u201cWhen I was 17 and got into stand-up I wanted what Eddie Murphy had \u2014 walking down a street, people going, \u2018My God!\u2019 That would let friends at school and your parents know you had made it, and that was my first goal. So yes, I wanted fame, but a couple of years in you also want to be good. And that becomes the goal.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s also about finances,\u201d Clooney adds. \u201cRemember, we\u2019re doing a job we could just do for free, in little plays or open-mic nights. Then suddenly you get to that age when you are either going to succeed or do a job behind a desk \u2014 so you want a steady income. You\u2019re chasing security.\u201d <\/p>\n
And work that makes you famous also tends to be the best seen and paid? \u201cYes,\u201d Clooney says, nodding. \u201cBut then there is a moment where you go, \u2018Oh, this is a little different.\u2019 There are a lot of things that get taken away from you.\u201d Like what? \u201cIndependence. And listen, you will never hear us complain. I hated, back when I was working, cutting tobacco in Kentucky, hearing famous people complain about their shit. But it doesn\u2019t mean there aren\u2019t challenges along the way.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTrying to play a light mood when you are feeling darkness is not easy,\u201d Sandler adds. \u201cBut you do it.\u201d Clooney laughs \u2014 he used to play in a basketball league in Los Angeles with a group of comedians. \u201cThere is no group that is angrier than a bunch of comedians on a basketball court,\u201d he says. \u201cIt was hate all day. I was, like, \u2018Dude, I thought you guys were all funny!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Clooney shrugs, back to playing through the pain. He recalls shooting ER, doing 17-hour days. \u201cYou cannot be sick. I never missed a day.\u201d He mentions his co-star Julianna Margulies, who played Carol. One day she took a phone call, \u201csomeone she really loved\u201d had died. \u201cAnd she was crying,\u201d Clooney says. \u201cBut we had to do this long, funny scene \u2014 someone had an arrow stuck in their head. And she put the phone down, wiped away the tears, nailed the scene and then came back and cried. You can never let them see you sweat.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLook, no part of me, zero, wakes up and says, \u2018Man, I wish that this hadn\u2019t happened,\u2019\u201d Sandler says of his career. \u201cBut you have a real life. You have ups and downs just like everybody. People overlook that. You can be in the room but your head is spinning in another direction because of work. But that\u2019s the same with every job.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 The best films of 2025 so far<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cMost people are sacrificing time with their family to make a living,\u201d Clooney adds. His father, Nick Clooney, was a journalist and news anchor and George \u201cwould complain if my dad didn\u2019t make it to a ballgame I was in, but he was working. When you get older you cut everyone a little more slack. We\u2019re just trying to put food on the table.\u201d He smiles. \u201cBut look, it\u2019s easier for me,\u201d he says. \u201cI had kids very late and so I could spend more time with them. But when you\u2019re young? That\u2019s hard.\u201d <\/p>\n Because earlier in his career he had less control over the work that he did? \u201cYou have no control,\u201d Clooney says. \u201cI remember when I got Batman & Robin [the 1997 film] \u2014 I called my friends and we screamed because back then I had only done one studio picture, and so to me that was a huge break.\u201d<\/p>\n He pauses. \u201cOf course, we did not understand then that it was going to be a terrible movie,\u201d he adds. \u201cAlso, you get further in your career and realise that you\u2019re going to be held responsible for the movies you make. Actors are funny beasts. We begin to save ourselves, because it\u2019s our face on the screen. Nobody brings out a director and goes, \u2018Let\u2019s kill that guy!\u2019 So Batman & Robin made me realise I had to pay attention to scripts and to directors. The next three films I did? Out of Sight with Steven Soderbergh, Three Kings with David O Russell, O Brother, Where Art Thou? with the Coen brothers.\u201d <\/p>\n Sandler, meanwhile, took control with Billy Madison in 1995 \u2014 the prototype for his many box-office comedies that followed. He enjoyed further success this year with the golfing sequel Happy Gilmore 2 on Netflix, but, I say, a broad comedy like that felt out of place these days. <\/p>\n Sandler and his wife, Jackie, in 2023<\/p>\n VALERIE MACON\/AFP\/GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n \u201cIs it hard to get a comedy made now?\u201d an intrigued Clooney asks. \u201cThe enthusiasm isn\u2019t as high as 15 years ago,\u201d Sandler admits. \u201cIt is a numbers game and comedies just weren\u2019t hitting as hard as they used to. Still, there are a lot in production now \u2014 they\u2019re cheap to make. But it\u2019s not the same as it used to be.\u201d<\/p>\n We finish on politics. Clooney is a paid-up Democrat \u2014 he led the call for Joe Biden to stand down in the 2024 US election, to be replaced by Kamala Harris (which he now calls a \u201cmistake\u201d, and says it was too hard for Harris to take over when she did: \u201cShe was given a very tough task.\u201d) We first met during Donald Trump\u2019s initial presidency, when Clooney told me the Democrats were too \u201cpassive\u201d but also that they did not \u201cnecessarily\u201d need a celebrity like Trump (like Clooney) to run.<\/p>\n![\"Adam](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/\/f6cd37cb-60f9-46dd-afd7-c415d2a98bdf.jpg\")
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