If there’s one Hollywood god the public respects and admires for living life to the fullest, it has to be George Clooney. With a net worth now valued at an estimated $500 million, he spends his time shuffling between his Los Angeles and Cabo, Mexico homes, or hops all the way to Europe to choose between his fantastic villa in Lake Cuomo or his 17th century mansion in the idyllic English countryside of Berkshire.
Photos by Anette Nantell, Dagens Nyheter, TT, Sipa USA, courtesy of Netflix
When he hits the road, you will only see Clooney behind the wheel of a prized Maserati, Corvette, Porsche or Tesla, or the handle bars of magnificent and monstrous Harleys when he dared to live on the edge.
When it comes to friends, his inner circle boasts the likes of Matt Damon, Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts — basically everyone in the blindingly star-studded cast he assembled for the global commercial success that is the “Ocean’s” trilogy. And more than just being a celebrity friend, he admitted to The London Times only this November that he once gave a million dollars each to 14 of his most loyal friends, who range from Hollywood screenwriters to successful businessmen and even a long-time airport employee in Texas.
Once Hollywood’s most eligible — and supposedly eternal — bachelor, he was only too happy to gobble up every statement he made in his decades’ old career that implied he wasn’t “the marrying type.” In fact, when he did marry human rights barrister Amal Alamuddin in 2014, he threw the grandest wedding for her over a weekend in Venice, and was generous enough to share parts of it with the public, sailing back and forth on the Grand Canal with the woman who stole his heart at 53, as well as their high-profile celebrity friends from around the world.
It’s Clooney moments such as this which make him the Hollywood star that can do no wrong and exempt from criticism no matter how far he goes. Why? Because it is this precisely this “sky’s the limit” attitude in everything he does — be it in giving Emmy, Academy and Golden Globe award performances as actor and director; fighting so bravely and passionately for his principles in human rights to the point of arrest; sharing huge portions of his wealth to bridge the gap between the world’s poor and privileged; or just oh so charmingly willing to to make other people laugh or feel better at his own expense. (In his Wikipedia bio, Clooney was quoted telling Larry King he had bell’s palsy in his first year of high school, and without any bitterness acknowledged, “It’s probably a great thing that it happened to me because it forced me to engage in a series of making fun of myself. And I think that’s an important part of being famous. The practical jokes have to be aimed at you”).
Just months shy of his 60th birthday in May, George Clooney continues to live life to the fullest as friend, family man, global activist and, as the world will is about to see anew, his core as actor and film director in the upcoming Netflix movie, “The Midnight Sky.”
Set for a global premiere on the streaming giant come December 23, Clooney throws caution to the wind in this full-length feature that sees him taking a twofold challenge. Firstly, as an actor, he plays the role of an ill and aging scientist, who chooses to stay behind on his own in the Arctic, racing to contact a crew of homebound astronauts led by Sully (Felicity Jones) and warn them of a mysterious global catastrophe. Secondly as director, he delivers a game-changing Netflix production and achieves a motion picture that is rightfully deserving of the big screen.
Whether from the trailers that you’ve seen or the advanced screener sent to The Sunday Times Magazine for review, Clooney’s sky’s-the-limit way is undoubtedly stamped all over this project.
To play Augustin Lofthouse, he grew a grotesquely thick beard and shed 28 pounds that hunched his back throughout the film and which, in real life, got him hospitalized for pancreatitis as he just admitted to The Mirror UK a couple of days ago.
To weave an emotionally-charged adaption of the book Good Morning, Midnight by Lily Brooks-Dalton, Clooney pulled all the stops in filming two parallel story lines — one amid such breathtaking scenes of an earth submerged in snow, and seamlessly shuffles them in the second against his fantastic imaginings of the infinite space.
Save for a few character-establishing scenes that may seem drawn out, Clooney’s The Midnight Sky — his seventh directorial foray to date — is close to flawless. Over all, it is a gripping, mystifying and poignant cinematic wonder that reflects the kind of man this Hollywood legend has always strive to be: an individual truly grateful for the gift of talent, passion, principle and privilege who knows it’s just simply unacceptable if he doesn’t make the most — and his best — out of them.
In a Zoom interview for select members of Philippine media in early December, The Sunday Times Magazine was able to reaffirm, first-hand, Clooney’s immovable approach to living life as he talks about the nitty-gritty of making this movie which, had he chosen to wax poetic is how he reached for the sky and held it.
The following transcription is from the Philippine media’s roundtable with the revered actor-director, organized by Netflix Philippines.
The Sunday Times Magazine: You’ve starred in two movies set in space before—“Solaris” and “Gravity.” And while your character in Midnight Sky only looks up at the vast unknown from earth, your direction imagined these wondrous scenes beyond the sky. Have you always this fascination for outer space?
George Clooney: I (do) think outer space is a pretty fascinating thing. If you think about it, all of us humans, we only deal in finite things. Our lives are finite; everything we know is finite. If you go to the end of your country borders or the end of earth, it’s all finite. And so, we can’t really comprehend infinity.
We go, “Well what’s up is up” and you go, “How far is up?” What’s up is forever, but when it ends, you go, “What’s on the other side of that?” They go, “It’s a figure eight.” You go, “What’s a figure eight? What’s on the other side of the figure eight?”
We’re not able to comprehend eternity and infinity. And because of it, you know, I think it makes this idea that there couldn’t be life out there and we’re the only planet in all of this, kind of silly. So, to me, it’s open with so many possibilities.
We’re fascinated with the ocean because we can’t see it. But we could eventually go through all of the ocean if we have to. We could send submarines through all the ocean. (But) we can’t do that in space. It’s forever, it’s one on top of the other. And for that, I think it is infinitely fascinating and leaves for us infinite possibilities. So, I think that that’s a good reason to be fascinated with it.
Philippine Media: What was it about The Midnight Sky that made you want to deliver this film in both capacities?
Clooney: Well, first I read the script and they wanted me to play the part. (It) was a great part; you can’t go wrong with a role like this. And then I called up Netflix, I said “I think I have an idea about the movie and what it should be, which is, it’s not an action film; it’s much more of a meditation.
You know, a meditation on life; a meditation on what we are capable of doing to one another if we’re not careful.
I wanted to tell that story and luckily, Netflix said OK because they could have said no. (Then) they gave me the opportunity to shoot this film and make it what I wanted to make.
Ph Media: What was it like filming in Iceland with a six-year-old in the cast?
Clooney: The thing with Caoilinn (Springall, who plays a mysterious girl named Iris, who suddenly appears in the deserted Artic), she was seven (when we filmed the movie), but she’s Irish, so she’s tough. She’s a tough little girl, I’m not kidding! I’d be freezing, standing there and she’s just there like that.
When the winds would come in, it’s not a snowstorm that you see hitting us, it’s a windstorm. There were perfectly blue skies and we would stand there. We (the production) would all be strung together by string so that we can’t get lost because once it comes in, you can’t see anything.
And the camera guys — you’ve got three guys holding the camera guy (whose) 65mm lens on the camera (is) so heavy. You know, you’re standing there like this, and you can see this wall coming towards you and you know it’s about to hit. And the minute you get into this hurricane for five minutes or whatever it takes, it’s really, really amazing and challenging. Great for an actor, hard for a director.
Ph Media: How hopeful are you about our abilities as species to avoid an apocalyptic situation like the one we see in the film, and has the year we’ve had changed your thinking at all?
Clooney: No. I’m always an optimist, pretty much a realist. I do believe in looking at things head-on. But I also believe that… I believe in our better angels eventually, you know. We’ve had much worse — in addition to a pandemic — four years of just mismanagement where the leader of the free world is calling the press the enemy of the people, and just decided as a policy to people who are seeking asylum, take your kids away and put them in cages. And I look at that and I think, this is insane and this isn’t who we are. And that comes to an end on January 20th.
I believe that we will and do constantly — you know the Martin Luther King line about the arc of history is longer but bends towards justice? I do believe in that. And I do believe it’s long and it takes a long time to get there. And I believe the same thing about our ignoring science which is just a temporary thing because people are trying to make money. We didn’t use to do that, and I think we’ll get back to that again.
I think, I do believe we’re going to head in the right direction. We have a few pit stops along the way where we do idiotic things, but I think the world in general is going figure it out. I’m always optimistic about that.
Ph Media: How do you want people to feel after the movie?
Clooney: Hope. It should be a warning shot about what we’re capable of doing to one another if we don’t pay attention. It should be a warning shot about the nine signs or creating divisiveness and hatred, and being unkind to one another. It should be a warning shot of all those things, but it should also be (of) hope with the idea of saying that this whole experiment of mankind is worth it. It’s worth the effort, and I think that’s what we try to say in the film. (That) it’s worth fighting for…
We’re looking at a pandemic right now (and) it’s causing a lot of panic, heartbreak. And it’s causing a lot of angst. It’s scaring people and I think we have to remember that everything that we’re facing right now is manmade. If man made it, man can unmake it. And that’s hopeful to me.
Ph Media: You were the eternal bachelor for the longest time. Did you ever see Augustine as the future you if you hadn’t met Amal?
Clooney: Could have been, you never know. Probably living with regret that I didn’t even know what I was going to have until I met Amal. If I’d met her, she was married to someone else, I would have a lot of regret. Yeah, maybe.
I feel that we met at the exact right time for both of us. Luckily enough to be able to have these two knuckleheads (twins Alexander and Ella) running around. They may run in here, you never know. They make some loud noises so… But yeah, you’re probably right. I could have ended up with all that regret and all that anger and bitterness harboring. Probably.
Ph Media: To draw a parallel of Augustine and Iris to your own life, what was the best and worst part about being in lockdown with toddlers?
Clooney: It’s been great because we get to spend together. I get to wake them up in the morning and put them in bed at night. So, for me, I’m very lucky in that sense. I’m not in a position that many people in the world are and for that part, I feel very lucky.
Now, would I like to get out of the house every once in a while, well yeah. You know they turned my office into a nursery and so I have to hide a bottle of tequila and a stuffed bear somewhere so that I can get through it.
But in general, Augustine doesn’t want this interruption. This is just a disaster for him. But I welcomed the interruption. It’s fun when the kids come in and interrupt the Zoom like they’ve done many times while I’m here. I’m in the theater where I edit, because this is all that I have left—they’ve taken over. They’ve taken over my life, so it’s fun.