The Express, Oct 2011: George Clooney: "I feel fab at 50 even if I can't keep a girlfriend"

From The Express

GEORGE CLOONEY: I FEEL FABULOUS AT 50 - EVEN IF I CAN'T KEEP A GIRLFRIEND

Saturday October 22 2011 by Garth Pearce

GEORGE Clooney insists that old age holds no fears for him. “I am only half way there,” he jokes. His confidence is helped by girlfriend Stacy Keibler, a model and former wrestler, who is 18 years younger.

“There is nothing wrong with getting older,” says Clooney. “I am going to enjoy this part of my life. I’ve always admired the experience and the abilities of older people. Nothing has changed now that I’m one myself.”

In truth, Clooney looks like few other 50-year-olds. He has kept his figure slim by playing basketball – he hates gyms and exercise routines – and wears the groomed, casual look that is usually the mark of only the very rich. Yet he has also allowed his neatly cut hair to go grey, quotes his preferred food as steak with a beer and dresses down in jeans, T-shirt and leather jacket.

“I have had a fantastic life and continue to do so,” he tells me, without apology. “I may have looked different had I done a proper job over the years that involved hard physical labour.”

But, he insists, he has always looked older than his years. “I remember, shortly after my 43rd birthday being in Italy and a younger girl said to me: ‘Hey, Georgio, how olda you?’ I was stupid enough to ask what no man should ever ask: ‘How old do you think I am?’ She said: ‘50’. I said: ‘You think I am 50 years old?’ She looked puzzled and said: ‘OK then – 51?’”


I won’t be having any facelifts. I always look at actors who have them and ask: ‘Why?’ They no longer look like themselves. The older actors I’ve admired, like Paul Newman, simply aged naturally.

“I will work less in front of the camera, simply because there are fewer roles for older actors. So I will try to direct more films and use my experience that way. I want to write and direct for a mature, thinking audience. I have never underestimated the power of older people. My father worked for 40 years as a news anchorman in TV and never seems to stop doing things at 77.”

He also draws the line at love scenes with much younger women. “I have never been comfortable with love scenes anyway and it does not look right. If there is an on-screen romance I prefer someone of my own age.”

But off-screen, Clooney does seem to have had a succession of younger girlfriends. His latest, Stacy, 32, has suddenly emerged on the scene after the end of his romance with Italian actress and presenter Elisabetta Canalis, 33. This is always a no-go area for Clooney, who is content to talk openly about other areas of his life.

But he does admit: “I am always working, travelling and have so many other interests, outside acting. I’m difficult to have as a boyfriend. “I am too driven and selfish. I have heard it again and again. No woman wants to be with a man who is working all the time. They look at how I live my life and, after that length of time, don’t like what they see.”

The women who came to that conclusion after long romances with Clooney include French student teacher Celine Balitran, actress Krista Allen and Britain’s Lisa Snowdon. “I do begin to wonder: ‘Am I going to be relegated to these three-year relationships for the rest of my life?’” he asks. “My trouble is that I keep on taking jobs and those jobs take me further away from home. I understand the problems. I am not married. I do not have kids. What I really have is work. I like being on a film set.”

Clooney has always made work his priority, even in the days, 27 years ago, when he arrived in Hollywood with £200 to his name. He tells a story of how he was introduced to the facts of Hollywood life very early by actor Miguel Ferrer, eldest son of his famous singer aunt Rosemary Clooney.

“I remember Miguel took me for a drive up Sunset Boulevard and we arrived in front of the old Screen Actors Guild building,” he says. “We pull up at a stoplight and these girls come up to the car and ask: ‘Baby, do you want to party?’

“I was like ‘Girls love me, man. I am on fire in Hollywood. I should have come a long time ago’. And Miguel says: ‘They are hookers, you idiot’.”

“I had never seen a prostitute in my life, coming from Kentucky. But there I was, fooled completely. I realised I had a lot to learn about Hollywood, life and women.”

He made friends with other out of work actors, with whom he remains close today. They are often seen at his Hollywood home, or at his sumptuous house on Lake Como, Italy, enjoying his renowned hospitality. “I value loyalty very highly,” he says. “They were loyal to me and I try to be loyal to them. I am comfortable with people I have known for a very long time.”

But there were some humiliating interviews in those early days, as he tried to get work. He met top director Francis Ford Coppola and read for a role. “He called my agent afterwards and asked if there was something mentally wrong with me,” he recalls.

“I did wonder, many times, whether I was going to make it. And then something lucky happens. I had been in a lot of TV shows and hailed films and made so many mistakes. But thanks to the show ER, which was given a Thursday night 10pm time slot in America, I became well known.”

He shows disdain for the way some top stars take themselves seriously. “The problem is that they actually start to think of themselves in a special way,” he says. “They think: ‘I am famous because I earned it’.

“That is not true. It happens on a flick of a coin. Even when I was young living at home there was a very famous actor on TV, complaining about his life. I resented it. I can remember even today how I felt about that and promised myself, if I ever made it, I would not become like that person.”

He prefers to keep a low profile when not promoting his films, as he was doing at the London Film Festival this week. “I don’t tweet and I don’t do Facebook,” he says.

“I sign autographs, because it is important to give that respect back to those who pay to see your work.”

That work currently includes what could be his greatest achievement, with The Ides Of March. He co-wrote the script, arranged financing, directed the movie and performs one of the lead roles as politician Mike Morris. It is a hard-hitting, cynical and at times thrilling story set around the race to be the Democratic candidate in an American presidential election. It is already a potential Oscar contender.

Clooney is also the star of another sharp and funny new film, The Descendants, premiered this week at the Film Festival, playing a father learning the truth about his wife’s infidelity from one of his two daughters. It will be out in the New Year.

“I don’t have time to stop,” he says. “And that includes wasting any time worrying about my age.”

cindigirl wrote:Does anybody believe he really said 'even if i can't keep a girlfriend'.
There's so much drivel written about him I don't believe even half of it. He won't even talk about Stacy who is part of his public life.

sandwiches wrote:This line cracked me up:

“I was like ‘Girls love me, man. I am on fire in Hollywood. I should have come a long time ago’. And Miguel says: ‘They are hookers, you idiot’.”