Ahoy, squirts! Quint here from Santa Barbara. I just got back from the fest's Modern Master award ceremony where they spent about 2 hours going over George Clooney's filmography and talking about it with the big man himself (yes, even BATMAN & ROBIN and RED SURF, although sadly enough no RETURN OF THE KILLER TOMATOES). Here's an arty pic of Clooney accepting his award from his GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK co-writer Grant Heslov.
Before the big awards ceremony I was able to sneak a short one on one interview with the man. We had only 6 or 7 minutes, but we do get to chat about Austin, GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK, a brand new Coen Bros project that I have never heard of and yes... a dirty joke. I was snuck in after Clooney finished up a handful of TV chats and the interview started after a quick introduction. Enjoy the chat!
GEORGE CLOONEY: You live down here?
QUINT: No, I live in Austin.
GEORGE CLOONEY: (smiles) The whole gang, man. The Ain't It Cool News boys!
QUINT: Well, Drew lives in Los Angeles, but Austin is very much the hub...
GEORGE CLOONEY: Yeah. Actually, I know Drew a little bit. He's friends with my assistant, Amy... How's it going there? Is it fun?
QUINT: In Austin? It's a blast.
GEORGE CLOONEY: I just think it's the greatest town... 6th Street... It's beautiful. I used to go out and play golf at Barton Creek and hang out there. We're lousy golfers, but we just liked Barton Creek so much. We'd go out and hang out... get drunk.
QUINT: I love South Austin. I love the city, too, but I love being where the green is.
GEORGE CLOONEY: It really is the wildest place. It's like this little oasis...
QUINT: Well, they call it the loop hole in the Bible belt.
GEORGE CLOONEY: Is that what they call it? (laughs)
QUINT: Congratulations on the nominations, by the way.
GEORGE CLOONEY: Thanks.
QUINT: I was just going through the nominations and just kept seeing SYRIANA, GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK and GOOD NIGHT and GOOD NIGHT. You got the scattershot there...
GEORGE CLOONEY: That's what I try to do. Throw out as many as you can... cast a net! (laughs)
QUINT: I'm really happy that GOOD NIGHT did so well. I love that you were able to put out a film that has nothing to do with modern politics on the surface, but really is a giant cautionary tale... Kinda like hiding medicine in a spoonful of sugar.
GEORGE CLOONEY: I think the films are best when the sort of... a lot of times the trick is to use historic references. (Arthur) Miller did it... a lot of people have done it over the years... Using the Salem Witch Hunt to talk about (Senator Joseph) McCarthy with THE CRUCIBLE. To me, the idea is it's probably best not to hit things directly on the head. It never works. People don't really want to be preached directly at... I think. Especially at a time where everything is really polarized.
That's why movies had messages like GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER. That's such a good one because they didn't say, "This is bad!" They had Spencer Tracy going, "I'm not a bigot... but don't marry my daughter."
So, it's always great if you can sort of house it in some other way. Quite honestly I had a piece that I cut, a montage at the end that sort of brought modern journalism up to date. It had Oswald being shot and went through all the things, including the guy blowing his head off on KTLA... and them all laughing about it at the time.
What I realized was that it was commenting on the story I had just told. Rather than do that, I actually had to leave it as it stood and let people make their own decisions.
QUINT: That's exactly right. If you let the audience put the pieces together themselves they don't feel like...
GEORGE CLOONEY: ... like they're being manipulated. Exactly. I think people in general are smart enough that they don't really like being manipulated. Most people.
QUINT: Do you think you would have told this story if it wasn't for this current state of politics?
GEORGE CLOONEY: No. I mean... Actually, let me think about that. I wouldn't have made the movie the way I made it. I had actually tried to put a movie of the week together. I fictionalized some of the characters and stuff about Murrow taking on McCarthy because at that period of time I knew very little (about the subject matter).
What I realized was, in the world of swift boats and issues like that, I realized that the trick was that we couldn't get any facts wrong. We had to be really, really careful with our facts because nowadays anything you get wrong gets completely marginalized. So, I certainly wouldn't have had the attention to detail that I did, but I also don't know that I would have had the passion to really get there...
You know, I was a pretty good sized target. Listen, I put myself there. I stood out and said, "Hey, we should ask questions before we send kids off to get shot at or start shooting at other people," and I was put on the cover of a magazine and called a traitor. It is interesting, you know, because there is that moment where you go, "Screw you!" But on the other hand if you're demanding freedom of speech you can't say, "But don't say bad shit about me."
So, part of it was then, "Okay, well... if we're gonna play, let's play. Okay, if you want to do that, then I'm going to at least try and say these are some arguments we should be talking about." It doesn't seem ever wrong to actually have an open discussion, which is one thing that was not allowed for a period of time.
QUINT: Before they kick me out here, can we talk about how THE GOOD GERMAN is going?
GEORGE CLOONEY: We finished it. We wrapped and Steven (Soderbergh)'s in post. He showed us a cut of the film 5 days after we wrapped.
QUINT: Of course he did! (laughs)
GEORGE CLOONEY: (laughs) That's his thing. He's so good. He edits while he shoots. It's black and white again and it's beautiful. He shot the hell out of it. It's a murder mystery in post-WW2 Germany. It's really interesting and Cate Blanchett is amazing and Tobey Maguire is great. I really loved working on it, actually. It was fun.
QUINT: It's one of the more interesting projects for me and I suspect a big one for a lot of the readers of the site... the ones that aren't solely focused on just super hero movies, that is.
GEORGE CLOONEY: Right! It's unbelievable... I'll go on the internet and look it up and it's unbelievable how many people know so much... Like they'll get really angry if you mess with a character. Like an Andy Dick character... No... Andy Dick? No, a Philip K. Dick character. (pauses) If you mess with Andy Dick's character... you're in trouble! (laughs) But if you mess with a Philip K. Dick character, they'll go apeshit. Which is amazing. I find it fascinating. It forces filmmakers to go, "Don't do that or we'll get killed," which is good.
QUINT: Can't wait for SCANNER... There's Rick Linklater, another Austin boy.
GEORGE CLOONEY: I really like him a lot, too. Did you see WAKING LIFE?
QUINT: Oh, yeah.
GEORGE CLOONEY: I really love that movie. Soderbergh acts in it. He's one of the guys that's drawn into it.
QUINT: I didn't know that...
(At this point I got a last minute warning, so I skip down to the last question)
QUINT: So, what's your favorite dirty joke?
GEORGE CLOONEY: My favorite dirty joke... oh, man.
QUINT: Usually, it's what comes to mind first, not the favorite.
GEORGE CLOONEY: I know, but they're usually so goddamn long I have to think of the ones that aren't, so... I'll have to think about this for a minute... what's your other question and I'll come up with it.
QUINT: The only other thing I wanted to bring up was your collaboration with the Coen Bros because I'm a huuuuge Coen Bros fan...
GEORGE CLOONEY: I'm going to be doing another film with them probably in the Spring. It's called BURN AFTER READING. It's really fun, really funny. I'll do anything they want. I really will... (pause)
A guy is in a bar. He's so drunk he throws up all over himself. He tells the bartender, "What am I doing? When I go home my wife's going to kill me..." The bartender puts twenty dollars in his shirt pocket and says, "Go home..." Have you heard this one?
QUINT: No, I haven't heard it.
GEORGE CLOONEY: He says, "Go home and tell your wife you were in a bar and a guy came up... he was drunk, threw up all over you, but put $20 in your shirt pocket." He goes home, walks in and his wife says, "Hap, look at you. You threw up all over yourself!"
He goes, "Honey, a guy got drunk and threw up on me and he put $20 in my shirt pocket." She reaches in and pulls out $40 and says, "What's the other $20 for?" He says, "He shit in my pants, too!"
And there you have it. I really wish I had just 2 more minutes to dig a little more about this Coen project BURN AFTER READING. Any spies out there that have any knowledge of this project send me an email and let me know what's going on with it. Any new Coen Bros movie is good news in my book!
Clooney came off as a real genuine guy. Sincere, balanced and totally level-headed. And he gave me a dirty joke! How about that? Hope you folks enjoyed the interview. I have more coming... one that may even be bigger than this cat I just talked to. I also have a world exclusive production visit to spill about as well as my coverage of the Santa Barbara Film Festival, so keep your eyes peeled, squirts!
-Quint
