accused by Paramount of \u201cantisemitic tropes\u201d<\/a> after the Marvel star attacked the deal over its potential consequences for Hollywood and accused the Ellison family of being complicit in the \u201cgenocide\u201d against Palestinians. David Ellison is the CEO of Paramount Skydance.<\/p>\n\n\t\u201cI support Mark Ruffalo\u2019s ability to speak freely,\u201d Clooney said when asked about the controversy by Variety\u2019s Elsa Keslassy. \u201cIt\u2019s ridiculous. We\u2019re not going to ban speech. I believe in free speech even when I completely disagree with it. That\u2019s important. In fact, it\u2019s part of how democracy works.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tClooney called the pending merger \u201ca complicated thing\u201d and suggested he \u201cdoesn\u2019t know how it works out.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI don\u2019t see how the merger financially ends up making sense for the people who are trying to do it. We\u2019ll see. I worry when a big company swallows up another company,\u201d he said. \u201cI always worry whenever big companies are consolidating because it means a lot of people are going to lose their jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tOn the topic of AI, Clooney predicted that it\u2019s \u201cgoing to be a very big part of this industry\u201d and worries that \u201cit\u2019s going to hurt us in a lot of ways.\u201d He expressed a concerned about the complications that AI will pose for actors, cracking that \u201cI would like to avoid being in a tampon commercial 20 years after I\u2019m dead.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tClooney was also probed about the state of journalism, having directed 2005\u2019s \u201cGood Night, and Good Luck,\u201d a drama about the conflict between the veteran CBS reporter Edward R. Murrow and Senator Joseph McCarthy. Clooney also adapted the film into a play and earned a Tony nomination in 2025 for playing Murrow in his Broadway debut.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThe state of journalism is in question. The richest people in the world are owning the Washington Post and Twitter, and that is a concern,\u201d he said, referring to Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk. Yet Clooney remains optimistic. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of room for great journalists. I do believe that information will find its way out.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tClooney has long been one of president Donald Trump\u2019s most outspoken critics, so naturally the actor was asked about his feelings on the state of democracy. <\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cHow do you see the state of the [country]?\u201d Clooney said with a laugh. \u201cThere\u2019s a great word, kakistocracy, which is a country run by the least qualified people. I think maybe we have a kakistocracy right now, but we\u2019ll get through it. We will have an election in November that should be a check in balance. And then in 2028, we will have a restoration of some normalcy.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tClooney has a long history with the Venice Film Festival, having first attended with Steven Soderbergh\u2019s 199 film \u201dOut of Sight\u201d and returning many times over the years with movies such as \u201cGood Night, and Good Luck,\u201d 2007\u2019s \u201cMichael Clayton,\u201d 2013\u2019s \u201cGravity,\u201d 2017\u2019s \u201cSuburbicon,\u201d 2024\u2019s \u201cWolfs\u201d and 2025\u2019s \u201cJay Kelly.\u201d Clooney had to miss last year\u2019s press conference for \u201cJay Kelly\u201d because he was battling a sinus infection.<\/p>\n
\n\tClooney joked that he\u2019s been getting nostalgic has he prepares to receive a career honor.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI\u2019m 65 years old \u2014 everything is melancholy. You brush your teeth and you\u2019re like, \u2018My teeth used to be so much better.\u2019 Everything about getting older\u2026,\u201d he said. \u201cI also feel very lucky. I have an incredible wife whom I love very much and she loves me. I have great kids. I think life is pretty good.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tOne of Hollywood\u2019s biggest stars, Clooney\u2019s influence spans television and film, starting with his breakout role on \u201cER\u201d and continuing with films such as \u201cSyriana,\u201d \u201cO Brother Where Art Thou,\u201d \u201cUp in the Air\u201d and the \u201cOceans\u201d trilogy.\u00a0Although he\u2019s directed several films \u2014 most recently the 2023 sports drama \u201cThe Boys in the Boat,\u201d Clooney says he\u2019s stepping back as a filmmaker and will focus on acting in order to spend time with his children.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI have two 9-year-old kids,\u201d Clooney said. \u201cIf I act in a movie, it\u2019s three months [away]. When I direct a movie, it\u2019s a year. And I can\u2019t do that anymore. I can\u2019t pull the kids out of school anymore. I\u2019m happy to doing this, being an actor, again. It\u2019s fun. I\u2019m a character actor now.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tClooney did tease his excitement for one upcoming project \u2014 a new \u201cOceans\u201d heist with Brad Pitt and Matt Damon. \u201cI would do anything with them,\u201d he said. \u201cAs soon as we get our schedules to work, we\u2019re going to film.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Life really does imitate art. George Clooney attended last year\u2019s Venice Film Festival with \u201cJay Kelly,\u201d a comedic…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":834240,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[236,88,24194,24350],"class_list":["post-834239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-george-clooney","tag-venice-film-festival"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/834239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=834239"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/834239\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/834240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=834239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=834239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=834239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}