You’ve just been named Sexiest Man Alive — again. How do you celebrate?
“We’re having a big party. We’re inviting Danny DeVito,” George Clooney quips, referring to a now notorious recent incident of drunk talk-show guesting he helped enable.
The gals will be pleased to know that during my interview with the People Magazine cover boy, he sure lives up to the hottie superlative. And it’s not just about the 45-year-old’s looks either — though one can’t help but fixate on the perfectly shorn salt-and-pepper locks, the smiley eye crinkles and lithe body still intact from his TV days on “ER,” through his big screen breakouts in “Batman and Robin” and “Perfect Storm,” and on to his first Academy Award win as best supporting actor for last year’s “Syriana.”
No, Clooney’s just cool. Somehow dapper in worn jeans and T-shirt, the Kentucky native promoting his new period piece “The Good German” comes off as quick-witted and charming, modest but still passionate and effective in espousing good causes. He’ll even answer the tough question about his now notorious 10-year-old declaration that he will never marry again or have children, whichthe iconic playboy reaffirmed in the recent People article.
You’re known for being so ethical in your social advocacy work and in your film choices these days, but is a public refusal to commit fair to the women you see? “How’d you get from Darfur to my love life?” Clooney asks, laughing, trying to use humor to deflect the question. I persist. “OK, do I [tick] off the girls I go out with? No. I’m ethical in my relationships,” the serial dater says.
Do they think so?
“I don’t know. You’ll have to ask them.”
His virgin encounter with Oscar earlier this year was less dramatic.
“It sure didn’t suck,” he says with a grin. “There’s an interesting thing that happens. It happens whenever something big happens. There is this great celebration. You call all your friends. Your friends call you. It takes about a day. Then, suddenly, it’s just kind of — eh.” Clooney shrugs.
“And it doesn’t really get you anywhere with the studio. They don’t really care. It’s still just as difficult to get a $7 million film or a $70 million film financed as before.”
Clooney underestimates his credibility as a movie star and as a director-producer-writer. It was in the latter roles that he achieved more Oscar nominations and critical respect for his broadcast journalism drama “Good Night, and Good Luck.” His production company with director Steve Soderbergh has just finished shooting another sequel to the successful “Ocean’s” ensemble crime comedies as he promotes their arty black-and-white post-World War II thriller co-starring Cate Blanchett and Tobey Maguire.
“Frankly, I don’t do projects like ‘The Good German’ because they’re going to be big box-office hits. I do them because I can spend this time in my career pushing to get interesting films made. I want to aim a little higher than the low bar,” Clooney declares.
However, the politically conscious activist downplays how a movie about the Allies invading Berlin a half-century ago might reference the current Iraqi situation. “We didn’t make it as a message movie,” he says. “But it is a film about how to screw up an occupation — or not.”
Currently, though, it’s the issue of the genocide in Darfur that most concerns Clooney.
“Before the end of the year, I’m going to talk to a couple of heads of state about the situation,” he says. “But as a celebrity, I realize my job isn’t to change policy. It’s to bring the cameras and shine a light on what’s going on. There’s a lot of work to do there. A lot more people will get killed before it’s done. I want to keep that in the foreground of my life.”
