George Clooney Interview with Berlin newspaper

George did an interview with a German newspaper when he was here last week.

Google translation

I forbid the actors to breathe
 
George Clooney also covers his camera on the laptop with tape. He is convinced that somebody bugged him before and listened to him. In this interview he talks about stolen art, digital to bare branches leaves and about his father, who also appears in his latest film, but the director of the son may not submit.
 
Someone like George Clooney can’t just be somewhere to watch the city and talk to people. Someone like George Clooney is constantly on the move. Half an hour he found time to answer a few questions at the Soho House on the outskirts of Berlin. For example, this:
 
What does it mean to you to celebrate the premiere of their film in Berlin?
 
It means a lot to me, really. I was invited to my very first directorial effort "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind" at the Berlinale. It's nice to be here, because here everybody loves the cinema and is well versed with it.
 
What will remain of the shooting in Germany in memory?
 
Our biggest problem was the weather, because it was much too cold for the season. In May it was still snowing and there were no leaves on the trees. So we had to hang on the branches in the post-digital. And on some days we were traveling with flamethrowers to melt the snow on the roadside. In other scenes were Matt Damon and the extras not allowed to breathe, because you would have otherwise seen their breath in the cold.
 
When did you first heard of the case Gurlitt?
 
Since were still in post-production. And I just thought: What an unusual timing. We all know that there are still some missing works of art in private collections. But the size of the discovery has surprised me then. We will see in the future more such collections, because the collectors gradually die and the heirs have a different attitude to art stolen.
 
What should happen in your opinion with these findings?
 
This is a difficult topic. I have the opinion, that great art belongs somehow to the world. The problem is, of course, as these paintings have changed hands. The Nazis systematically stolen much. Many Jewish immigrants had to sell because they wanted to escape. I feel that the painting should give back to the people once owned it, which they originally belonged. Or their heirs. And then hopefully find a way to make this available to the rest of the world. On the other hand, if you bought a picture for a million dollars and then find out later that it was stolen, it is to you also not fair that you have to give the damn thing back.
 
Have members of your family fought in the Second World War?
 
Yes. My uncle George, after I was named, was a B17 bomber pilot in the 8th Air Force Division. I own many of his schedules and his flying jacket, which he was very proud of. My uncle "Chick" had a glass eye and he was missing a finger. The finger has already been amputated as a child. And I do not remember on which occasion he lost the eye. After the war he was still in uniform, although he could only do some auxiliary work in the army. And I remember that he often put his glass eye on the counter, lifted his hand in the air and said: War is hell. He did this just to let you buy a drink for him.
 
What you experience as a director, what can you not experience in your profession as an actor?
 
To direct is just more fun. The difference between a director and an actor is like between the painter and the model. The model is only painted, as a director you have even the brush in your hand and create something. Simple as that I also do this job long enough to know how actresses careers look like. I wanted to have my career under better control and not constantly be worried about what a director, producer or casting agent thinks of me when I'm seventy.
 
Many of your colleagues want nothing to do with politics. Why do you meddle?
 
Although I do not make politic. I can give problems in our society a voice I make on the subject. I have a louder public voice, than other people and I can make good or bad policy public. For the first time I was really angry when we were about to invade Iraq. I had to criticize, but it put off my chin and taken a beating. But I remember very well that I was in London and million people protested against their government and the war. From there I flew to Berlin to Berlinale. And here million people were on the streets to support their government for the decision not to go to war.
 
That was at the time when the NSA started to listen to our Chancellor.
 
I bet they also have bugged me. I once had a pretty big shot from the CIA to visit me. He tacked first, a "postit", on the camera lens of my computer. The thing sticks still there. You never know.
 
What role does art play in your life?
 
That's a funny thing. Art was never really my thing. However, I have some paintings hanging in my home on the wall. One day I hired an interior designer, because my buddy Randy had said, you should check to pull an adult rate, so that your home looks also like an adult. And the first thing he took all these pictures off the wall, because he found it terrible. But I replied: This image I purchased on the street, as I was for the first time in Paris. It means something to me, whether you think it is great or not. Another gave me my aunt. So everything was put up again.
 
How did you come up with the idea to engage your father for a short appearance at the end of the movie and how he has responded to your idea?
 

He did not like it first. And although he accepted then but this and I knew we will shoot this scene, it was very strange. Even at my age I can not tell my dad what to do. He had only one word text. And yet he has always pronounced differently than we had agreed. He just did what he wanted. These are just this father-son dynamics. And I could not just correct it.

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Following recent media revelations,  I've covered my camera lens on my MacBook with black insulating tape.

I have much secret information that could bring down
many people.

   


Yay.....that's two things I have in common with Our Man !

Great interview...thanks Nicky....

who hasn't the nsa spied on....