George Clooney knows critics are questioning his range as an actor — and he doesn’t care.
“Do people say that I only play myself? I don’t give a s***,” Clooney, 64, told Vanity Fair on Monday, August 4. “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 s***.”
Clooney specifically weighed in on people saying he only plays versions of himself, adding, “Have you ever tried playing yourself? It’s hard to do. I’ve been the beneficiary of having my career not be massively successful in lots of different directions.”
He continued: “I didn’t really get successful, in the kind of success that can be blinding, until I was 33 years old [when ER began]. I’d been working for 12 years at that point. I had a real understanding of how fleeting all of it is and how little it has to do with you, quite honestly.”
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Clooney’s breakout role came after he played Dr. Doug Ross on ER from 1994 to 1999, which earned him two Emmy nominations. From there he transitioned to film with roles in From Dusk Till Dawn, the Ocean’s franchise, The Descendants, Gravity and more.
While discussing his most recent role in Netflix’s Jay Kelly, Clooney recalled struggling with Noah Baumbach’s directing style.
“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,’” Clooney said. “‘I don’t have it in me. I’ve got the acting range from A to B.’”
Jay Kelly stars Clooney as a world-famous movie star in his 60s who faces a personal reckoning when he travels to an Italian film festival to receive a tribute award. Laura Dern plays his character’s publicist, while Adam Sandler is his manager on screen.
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“When you’re an actor in my position, at my age, finding roles like this aren’t all that common,” Clooney noted “If you can’t make peace with aging, then you’ve got to get out of the business and just disappear. I’m now the guy that, when I go running after a bad guy, it’s funny — it’s not suspenseful. That’s okay. I embrace all of that.”
Clooney went on to praise his costar Sandler, 58, for his work on the film.
“This film, more than any film Adam has done, shows what a beautiful, heartfelt, soulful actor he is,” he 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.”
