George Clooney, the 63-year-old Hollywood star known for leading roles in romantic films like One Fine Day and Ticket to Paradise, has declared he is stepping back from the genre.
“I’m not doing romantic films anymore,” Clooney stated, explaining he’s “not trying to compete with 25-year-old leading men”.
Clooney is currently captivating Broadway audiences in Good Night, And Good Luck, in which he portrays journalist Edward R. Murrow.
The play dramatises Murrow’s clash with Senator Joseph McCarthy during the “Second Red Scare”, a period of intense anti-communist sentiment.
The production adapts the 2005 Oscar-nominated film of the same name, which Clooney directed.
Commenting on the current state of government-press relations, Clooney expressed concern over the use of “government to scare or fine, or use corporations to make journalists smaller”.
“Governments don’t like the freedom of the press, they never have. And that goes for whether you are a conservative or a liberal or whatever side you’re on. They don’t like the press.”
The lifelong Democrat also discussed his request, in 2024, for former president Joe Biden to step down from the race for the White House after he stumbled over his words when he faced now-President Donald Trump during a televised debate.
“I was raised to tell the truth,” he said.
“I had seen the president up close for this fundraiser, and I was surprised.
“And so, I feel as if there was a lot of… cowardice in my party, through all of that, and I was not proud of that, and I also believed I had to tell the truth.”
Speaking about his career, he added: “Look, I’m 63 years old. I’m not trying to compete with 25-year-old leading men. That’s not my job. I’m not doing romantic films anymore.”
He added: “There isn’t a single actor alive that wouldn’t have loved to have gone on Broadway. So that’s the fun of it. It’s tricky the older you get. But why not?”