George Clooney: Matt Damon is 'tough'
3 posters
Page 1 of 1
George Clooney: Matt Damon is 'tough'
by Nicky80 Mon 06 Jan 2014, 18:14
Just found this interview. Not sure if it's really new???? If this is duplicate please merge or delete. I'm not sure if we got this covered already.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
George Clooney: Matt Damon is 'tough'
The international jet-setting world of George Clooney, 52, elicits intoxicating images of a James Bond-like existence where glamour and opulence dominate the day’s agenda. Arguably, this Kentucky-born movie star, from relatively modest beginnings, epitomises ‘la dolce vita’ as though he were born to it. Four months a year he resides in his six-house compound in Lake Como’s Laglio district and the remainder in a mansion in Los Angeles he bought in 1995, formerly owned by Stevie Nicks .
Eternally single, he’s equally famous for his refusal to wed any of the ever-increasing string of ‘long-time’ girlfriends, all of whom are paraded on worldwide red carpet events he attends and many of whom end up with a television career. He was most recently in a relationship with wrestler Stacey Keibler, 34, who lasted the usual two-year bench mark, ending in July 2013. Prior to Keibler there was British model Lisa Snowdon, with whom he had a five-year on-again, off-again relationship. He dated reality personality, Sarah Larson, Italian actress Elisabetta Canalis, and many years ago Renee Zellweger, Krista Allen, Kelly Preston and French reality TV personality, Celine Balitran. Clooney has kept his word to never wed again since his marriage to actress Talia Balsam, which lasted from 1989 to 1992.
He was most recently seen in Gravity, along with Sandra Bullock, but now he’s gearing up for the release of The Monuments Men, an adaptation of The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History (by Robert M. Edsel). Clooney co-wrote, directed and stars in this very ambitious project.
THE INTERVIEW
Q: The Monuments Men sounds like a great premise for a story…
CLOONEY: Well, it’s the most art ever stolen in the world.
Q: Would you be willing to sacrifice your life for a work of art like these men were willing to do?
CLOONEY: That’s a good question. It depends on whose painting (laughter). But what the real root of this story is not just about art, it’s about culture. There was a process going on to steal or destroy entire countries’ culture and that comes down to a very different thing. That comes down to trying to preserve, trying to not allow that to happen, trying to keep that alive in terms of serving your country. But I don’t know if I would lay down my life for a Picasso (laughs).
Q: This is your fifth time directing. What does it take for you to not only direct but star in a film as well?
CLOONEY: Well, I’m looking for interesting stories and Grant (Heslov) and I have had a company and we’ve worked together for about 30 years and we’re always looking for interesting pieces to tell and sort of different points of view that we don’t often see. We also know that right now we’re able to get some films made so while we get the chance to do it we’re going to continue to do them because I think they’re fun that way and I think it’s fun to be able to push some of the limits.
Q: You seem to employ the same people for all of your films. I guess you like working with the same team?
CLOONEY: Well, people that you like. Life is too short. We want to work with people who we enjoy their company and, for the most part we enjoy some of these actors’ company. Some of them we don’t but, you know, you know who we’re talking about (laughter). Matt Damon’s the toughest of them all because, you know, he lives in his own sort of Matt Damon bubble (jokes). He’s the toughest one to work with.
Q: There are other villains you could have made a movie about. Why does it always have to be Nazis? Is it because they’re easier bad guys than the others?
CLOONEY: Well, they are the bad guys (laughs). I mean, we could talk about walk through the Vatican, walk through the Louvre, there’s an awful lot of art that certainly could be in other places. The Louvre is saying now that they’re actively trying to return some of the art that belonged to the Jewish collectors that were taken over during the war, but the truth of the matter is this is an interesting story and we wanted to do a World War 2 story and this seemed like a brand new story to us. It was one that we were slightly familiar with but I never realised that we’re talking about millions of pieces of the best art in the world.
This isn’t just, ‘Oh, you know, we stole a little bit of art,’ or ‘We’ve stolen hundreds of pieces of art.’ This is six million pieces of art around the world. This is Michelangelo’s, they were burning Picasso’s and Salvador Dali’s in the yard because they were degenerate art. This is a very specific, very big moment in the history in terms of destroying our culture so it certainly makes it a worthwhile story to tell.
Q: You recently appeared in Gravity. What was that like working so much in isolation?
CLOONEY: I actually like working by myself. [Laughs] Truthfully, I was constantly in motion. The trickiest part was learning to speak quickly and move 50 per cent slower because you are in space. It was not fun in the machinery - I have a bad back and a bad neck, so that part was not fun. But you have to step back and look at my life. I’m lucky enough to get to work on these projects.
Q: Onto a very different subject. How hi-tech are you? Are you on Twitter?
CLOONEY: (laughs) Why on God’s green earth would you be on Twitter? Because first of all, the worst thing you can do is make yourself more available, right? Because you’re going to be available to everybody. But also Twitter, so one drunken night, you come home and you’ve had two too many drinks and you’re watching TV and somebody pisses you off, and you go ‘Ehhhhh’ and fight back. And you go to sleep, and you wake up in the morning, and your career is over. Or you’re an asshole. Or all the things you might think in the quiet of your drunken evening are suddenly blasted around the entire world before you wake up.
Q: You’re friends with a lot of movie stars, such as yourself. And like yourself, Brad Pitt seems to handle things well.
CLOONEY: Well, for a long time now, Brad has been the biggest movie star in the world. He’s bigger than me, bigger than DiCaprio. And I really admire how he deals with that. It’s not easy for him. But he tries to be the most honest version of Brad Pitt that he can be. And he also remains unavailable. He’s still a giant movie star because you can’t get to him. That doesn’t mean that I don’t think of him as incredibly talented and smart and all those things. But you also can’t get to him.
Q: Sounds a bit lonely – do you relate to that?
CLOONEY: Anyone would be lying if they said they didn’t get lonely at times. The loneliest you will get is in the most public of arenas: You will go to a place and end up in the smallest compartment possible, because it’s a distraction to everybody, and you end up not getting to enjoy it like everyone else. I have been infinitely more alone in a bad relationship; there’s nothing more isolating. I have been in places in my life where that has existed.
Q: What cultural icons have mattered most to you?
CLOONEY: I grew up Catholic, and there were always religious icons that I’d see in church. The cross and the altar were big parts of my life. But when I was 10 years old, my father took me to the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. I remember walking up those stairs and looking at this carved piece of marble that had nothing to do with a carved piece of marble. That statue said something to me about us as a society. In The Monuments Men, we question whether saving art is worth a life, and I would argue that the culture of a people represents life. When the Taliban destroy incredible pieces of architecture and art, or when American troops don’t protect museums in Iraq, you are seeing people losing their culture. And with the end of a country’s culture goes its identity. It’s a terrible loss, down to your bones.
Q: What do you say about the never-ending gay rumours?
CLOONEY: I think it’s funny, but the last thing you’ll ever see me do is jump up and down, saying, ‘These are lies!’ That would be unfair and unkind to my good friends in the gay community. I’m not going to let anyone make it seem like being gay is a bad thing. My private life is private, and I’m very happy in it. Who does it hurt if someone thinks I’m gay? I’ll be long dead and there will still be people who say I was gay. I don’t give a s**t.
Q: What are your likes?
CLOONEY: Lake Como. I love it there. The local people treat me very well and as one of their own. It’s all about food and wine and women and the beauty of being there?
Motorbikes. I enjoy going on motorcycle trips and stopping in small towns and enjoying drinks with the locals. My friends and I all love riding motorcycles and we go on tours together. We made it all the way to the German Alps.
Aging. I love my grey hair and wrinkles. I love the fact that my face has more of an edge and more character than it did when I was in my twenties and thirties. No Botox for me.
Q: And your hates?
CLOONEY: The gym. There are people who go to a gym and burn off what they want to in 30 minutes – fine for them. Frenetic gym activity isn’t for me.
Batman and Robin (1997). It was a really bad film – a great lesson in humility. I learned two things – never make a vanity blockbuster and never ever appear in a rubber suit with nipples!
Security men. I loathe having minders when I go to premieres and black tie ceremonies. Learning Italian. My Italian still sucks! It’s not only the grammar I need to work on, but the pronunciation. The Italians still think I’m inventing my own strange dialect! /Viva Press
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
George Clooney: Matt Damon is 'tough'
The international jet-setting world of George Clooney, 52, elicits intoxicating images of a James Bond-like existence where glamour and opulence dominate the day’s agenda. Arguably, this Kentucky-born movie star, from relatively modest beginnings, epitomises ‘la dolce vita’ as though he were born to it. Four months a year he resides in his six-house compound in Lake Como’s Laglio district and the remainder in a mansion in Los Angeles he bought in 1995, formerly owned by Stevie Nicks .
Eternally single, he’s equally famous for his refusal to wed any of the ever-increasing string of ‘long-time’ girlfriends, all of whom are paraded on worldwide red carpet events he attends and many of whom end up with a television career. He was most recently in a relationship with wrestler Stacey Keibler, 34, who lasted the usual two-year bench mark, ending in July 2013. Prior to Keibler there was British model Lisa Snowdon, with whom he had a five-year on-again, off-again relationship. He dated reality personality, Sarah Larson, Italian actress Elisabetta Canalis, and many years ago Renee Zellweger, Krista Allen, Kelly Preston and French reality TV personality, Celine Balitran. Clooney has kept his word to never wed again since his marriage to actress Talia Balsam, which lasted from 1989 to 1992.
He was most recently seen in Gravity, along with Sandra Bullock, but now he’s gearing up for the release of The Monuments Men, an adaptation of The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History (by Robert M. Edsel). Clooney co-wrote, directed and stars in this very ambitious project.
THE INTERVIEW
Q: The Monuments Men sounds like a great premise for a story…
CLOONEY: Well, it’s the most art ever stolen in the world.
Q: Would you be willing to sacrifice your life for a work of art like these men were willing to do?
CLOONEY: That’s a good question. It depends on whose painting (laughter). But what the real root of this story is not just about art, it’s about culture. There was a process going on to steal or destroy entire countries’ culture and that comes down to a very different thing. That comes down to trying to preserve, trying to not allow that to happen, trying to keep that alive in terms of serving your country. But I don’t know if I would lay down my life for a Picasso (laughs).
Q: This is your fifth time directing. What does it take for you to not only direct but star in a film as well?
CLOONEY: Well, I’m looking for interesting stories and Grant (Heslov) and I have had a company and we’ve worked together for about 30 years and we’re always looking for interesting pieces to tell and sort of different points of view that we don’t often see. We also know that right now we’re able to get some films made so while we get the chance to do it we’re going to continue to do them because I think they’re fun that way and I think it’s fun to be able to push some of the limits.
Q: You seem to employ the same people for all of your films. I guess you like working with the same team?
CLOONEY: Well, people that you like. Life is too short. We want to work with people who we enjoy their company and, for the most part we enjoy some of these actors’ company. Some of them we don’t but, you know, you know who we’re talking about (laughter). Matt Damon’s the toughest of them all because, you know, he lives in his own sort of Matt Damon bubble (jokes). He’s the toughest one to work with.
Q: There are other villains you could have made a movie about. Why does it always have to be Nazis? Is it because they’re easier bad guys than the others?
CLOONEY: Well, they are the bad guys (laughs). I mean, we could talk about walk through the Vatican, walk through the Louvre, there’s an awful lot of art that certainly could be in other places. The Louvre is saying now that they’re actively trying to return some of the art that belonged to the Jewish collectors that were taken over during the war, but the truth of the matter is this is an interesting story and we wanted to do a World War 2 story and this seemed like a brand new story to us. It was one that we were slightly familiar with but I never realised that we’re talking about millions of pieces of the best art in the world.
This isn’t just, ‘Oh, you know, we stole a little bit of art,’ or ‘We’ve stolen hundreds of pieces of art.’ This is six million pieces of art around the world. This is Michelangelo’s, they were burning Picasso’s and Salvador Dali’s in the yard because they were degenerate art. This is a very specific, very big moment in the history in terms of destroying our culture so it certainly makes it a worthwhile story to tell.
Q: You recently appeared in Gravity. What was that like working so much in isolation?
CLOONEY: I actually like working by myself. [Laughs] Truthfully, I was constantly in motion. The trickiest part was learning to speak quickly and move 50 per cent slower because you are in space. It was not fun in the machinery - I have a bad back and a bad neck, so that part was not fun. But you have to step back and look at my life. I’m lucky enough to get to work on these projects.
Q: Onto a very different subject. How hi-tech are you? Are you on Twitter?
CLOONEY: (laughs) Why on God’s green earth would you be on Twitter? Because first of all, the worst thing you can do is make yourself more available, right? Because you’re going to be available to everybody. But also Twitter, so one drunken night, you come home and you’ve had two too many drinks and you’re watching TV and somebody pisses you off, and you go ‘Ehhhhh’ and fight back. And you go to sleep, and you wake up in the morning, and your career is over. Or you’re an asshole. Or all the things you might think in the quiet of your drunken evening are suddenly blasted around the entire world before you wake up.
Q: You’re friends with a lot of movie stars, such as yourself. And like yourself, Brad Pitt seems to handle things well.
CLOONEY: Well, for a long time now, Brad has been the biggest movie star in the world. He’s bigger than me, bigger than DiCaprio. And I really admire how he deals with that. It’s not easy for him. But he tries to be the most honest version of Brad Pitt that he can be. And he also remains unavailable. He’s still a giant movie star because you can’t get to him. That doesn’t mean that I don’t think of him as incredibly talented and smart and all those things. But you also can’t get to him.
Q: Sounds a bit lonely – do you relate to that?
CLOONEY: Anyone would be lying if they said they didn’t get lonely at times. The loneliest you will get is in the most public of arenas: You will go to a place and end up in the smallest compartment possible, because it’s a distraction to everybody, and you end up not getting to enjoy it like everyone else. I have been infinitely more alone in a bad relationship; there’s nothing more isolating. I have been in places in my life where that has existed.
Q: What cultural icons have mattered most to you?
CLOONEY: I grew up Catholic, and there were always religious icons that I’d see in church. The cross and the altar were big parts of my life. But when I was 10 years old, my father took me to the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. I remember walking up those stairs and looking at this carved piece of marble that had nothing to do with a carved piece of marble. That statue said something to me about us as a society. In The Monuments Men, we question whether saving art is worth a life, and I would argue that the culture of a people represents life. When the Taliban destroy incredible pieces of architecture and art, or when American troops don’t protect museums in Iraq, you are seeing people losing their culture. And with the end of a country’s culture goes its identity. It’s a terrible loss, down to your bones.
Q: What do you say about the never-ending gay rumours?
CLOONEY: I think it’s funny, but the last thing you’ll ever see me do is jump up and down, saying, ‘These are lies!’ That would be unfair and unkind to my good friends in the gay community. I’m not going to let anyone make it seem like being gay is a bad thing. My private life is private, and I’m very happy in it. Who does it hurt if someone thinks I’m gay? I’ll be long dead and there will still be people who say I was gay. I don’t give a s**t.
Q: What are your likes?
CLOONEY: Lake Como. I love it there. The local people treat me very well and as one of their own. It’s all about food and wine and women and the beauty of being there?
Motorbikes. I enjoy going on motorcycle trips and stopping in small towns and enjoying drinks with the locals. My friends and I all love riding motorcycles and we go on tours together. We made it all the way to the German Alps.
Aging. I love my grey hair and wrinkles. I love the fact that my face has more of an edge and more character than it did when I was in my twenties and thirties. No Botox for me.
Q: And your hates?
CLOONEY: The gym. There are people who go to a gym and burn off what they want to in 30 minutes – fine for them. Frenetic gym activity isn’t for me.
Batman and Robin (1997). It was a really bad film – a great lesson in humility. I learned two things – never make a vanity blockbuster and never ever appear in a rubber suit with nipples!
Security men. I loathe having minders when I go to premieres and black tie ceremonies. Learning Italian. My Italian still sucks! It’s not only the grammar I need to work on, but the pronunciation. The Italians still think I’m inventing my own strange dialect! /Viva Press
Nicky80- Casamigos with Mr Clooney
- Posts : 8561
Join date : 2013-05-01
Location : Germany
Re: George Clooney: Matt Damon is 'tough'
by Nicky80 Mon 06 Jan 2014, 18:23
Most of it sounds familiar. Can't remember where the original is from. Or am I confused now?
Nicky80- Casamigos with Mr Clooney
- Posts : 8561
Join date : 2013-05-01
Location : Germany
Re: George Clooney: Matt Damon is 'tough'
by it's me Mon 06 Jan 2014, 18:56
"Security men. I loathe having minders when I go to premieres and black tie ceremonies"
HU? this is really new
not the rest
IMO
HU? this is really new
not the rest
IMO
it's me- George Clooney fan forever!
- Posts : 18398
Join date : 2011-01-03
Re: George Clooney: Matt Damon is 'tough'
by Mazy Mon 06 Jan 2014, 19:07
I know what you mean Nicky, could be that it was ready for release before MM. Sounds in part like something from this summer, have to check. Good anyway.
Mazy- Achieving total Clooney-dom
- Posts : 2883
Join date : 2012-11-03
Similar topics» CLOONEY GEORGE Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Jennifer Aniston e Matt Damon: Hollywood sul lago di Como!
» Matt Damon to be George Clooney's best man
» George Clooney and Matt Damon Are Still Trying...
» Matt Damon: George Clooney 'Married Up'
» George Clooney and Matt Damon 5-05-2013
» Matt Damon to be George Clooney's best man
» George Clooney and Matt Damon Are Still Trying...
» Matt Damon: George Clooney 'Married Up'
» George Clooney and Matt Damon 5-05-2013
Page 1 of 1
Permissions in this forum:
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
» George's Broadway Dates Announced
» Clooney Foundation exposure of happenings in next Olympic Host Nation
» 2024 Niv: Geoege & Amal in St. Tropez
» Chit Chat 2024
» Clooney voices pro-Harris ad
» 2024 What George watches on TV
» George sells his LA home
» Oct 2024 Clooney dinner Party