George Clooney is recalling a tense on-set showdown that nearly lit his early career up in flames.
“About 10 years in, I got in an argument with an executive producer. I was the third or fourth banana on a TV show, and I had to leave,” Clooney, 64, shared in an interview with W Magazine published on Tuesday, January 6. “I thought that was the end of my career.”
The actor explained that while he knew he wasn’t “in a position of power,” he wasn’t going to accept being “spoken to the way I was” so he “told him to knock it off. He yelled at me. I yelled back. It’s still debatable if I was fired or I quit.”
Luckily, a face from his past turned up to repay a favor.
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“Someone who I had helped out years earlier read that I’d been fired. He brought me in for an audition and gave me a pilot,” he said. “That kept me in town.”
The dispute didn’t leave a permanent mark. Clooney went on to have an illustrious TV and film career, starring on five seasons of ER as Dr. Ross from 1994 to 1999 before winning two Oscars, five Golden Globes and countless more accolades.
Despite decades of success in the industry, Clooney admitted that he was sitting at home “wondering if I would ever work again” when writer-director Noah Baumbach called about casting him in his latest project, Jay Kelly.
Clooney said yes on the spot, before he even read the script. The film, which premiered in November 2025, follows Clooney as the titular character, an A-list movie star who is desperate to reconnect with his two daughters as he grapples with his dwindling fame.
“It’s funny, because I get why people go, ‘Isn’t this a little close to home?’’’ Clooney quipped about taking on the role. Still, the Oscar winner insists that he’s nothing like his character.
“It didn’t feel that way to me because the guy has made such mistakes in his life,” he explained. “He’s isolated from his family, which I’m not. He has only friends that he pays, which I haven’t. I should maybe start paying my friends, but I haven’t yet done that. It didn’t feel like me, so it was easy to remove myself and just play a character.”
Clooney is anything but lonely. He and wife Amal wed in 2014, welcoming twins Alexander and Ella less than three years later. The family was recently granted French citizenship, according to a naturalization decree via French newspaper Journal Officiel in December 2025, allowing their farm in the south of France to serve as their primary residence. They also have additional properties in England and Italy.
Clooney has been continuously outspoken about his desire to raise his children away from the “culture” of Hollywood, telling Esquire in October 2025 that France doesn’t “give a s*** about fame,” therefore giving his children more of a “fair shake at a normal life.”
Living on a farm also allows them to get their hands dirty. “For them, it’s like — they’re not on their iPads, you know? They have dinner with grown-ups and have to take their dishes in,” he said. “They have a much better life.”
George Clooney ‘Trying to Figure Things Out’ About Himself Amid Jay Kelly Role
While speaking to W, Clooney emphasized the importance of staying grounded, noting that being “broke” is what taught him how to “do things.” He recalled his early days selling men’s suits at Nadlers Men’s Stores in Cincinnati, Ohio, when, unable to afford nice things, he would tailor his own clothing.
“You had to have suits. I couldn’t afford to buy many, so I would buy a cheaper suit, long, cut off the bottoms of the pants, and use the fabric to make ties, so I could go to work,” he said, listing off his other unrecognized talents. “I can fix a car, I can sew, and if you drop me on a desolate island … I was on a motorcycle trip with a buddy, and he got hit by a car in the middle of nowhere in southern Italy. I went into the forest, and I got bamboo and I made a splint for his leg with a bungee cord. I’ve always been scrappy.”
