George Clooney in fear of age
At the age of 56, when “Welcome to Suburbicon” was released on December 6, George the filmmaker took a wry look at George the actor… Lucidity or boasting?
Younger, he did not suffer from the comparison. George Clooney was sure of his talent, confident in his ability to progress, sure that he had his life and his career ahead of him. Today it is different. The director of Welcome to Suburbicon (released December 6) is 56 years old.
An age that poses a problem for him. An age also when he sees himself more as a screenwriter and director than an actor. In fact, Welcome to Suburbicon is the first of six films he has made since 2002 in which he does not appear on camera.
On the set, George Clooney watched with admiration mingled with envy as his lead actor Matt Damon ran his nerves on a stress reliever grip. The film features a character whose wife is murdered by two henchmen in a life insurance scam. Added to this drama was the explosive context of the neighborhood, an American suburb, in the late 1950s, where the arrival of a black family met with violent rejection.
George Clooney saw only one thing when he watched his lead actor: he was better than him. It had to do with the way he played with his hands, the tightness you could read in his face, the intensity brought to that scene. What he did, George Clooney would have been unable to do.
"A great actor remains fundamentally a marginal"
“The day before, I spent election night with Matt Damon,” he recalls. Donald Trump's unexpected victory took us by surprise. But she was so in tune with what I was directing. Trump made minorities a scapegoat. And I showed a black family forced to leave their neighborhood after a near-lynching because they did not have the right color of skin. This coincidence should, artistically understand, have delighted me. But my head was elsewhere. I contemplated my intimate tragedy. "
