George Clooney has commented for the first time on his New York Times op-ed asking Joe Biden to drop out of the presidential race.
“I’ve actually never had to answer that question so I suppose I will do it here,” Clooney said when asked about it at the Venice press conference for his new film “Wolfs.”
“The person who should be applauded is the president, who has done the most selfless thing a president has done since George Washington,” he said, adding: “What should be remembered is the selfless act of someone who, it’s very hard to let go of power — we know that, we’ve seen it all over the world — and for someone to say I think there’s a better path forward, all the credit goes to him. And that’s really the truth … I’m just very proud of where we are in the state of the world right now.”
Related Stories
Elsewhere, when asked about Apple moving the film from a wide theatrical release to a limited one, Clooney also brought up a New York Times report from last week by Nicole Sterling that he and Pitt were paid more than $35 million each.
Popular on Variety
“It was millions and millions dollars less than what was reported,” he said. “I think it’s bad for our industry to have that be the standard.”
But on the changing state of the industry and moviegoing, he said that streaming was a necessary force.
“We need it. Our industry needs this. And [streamers] also benefit from having films released,” he said. “But we haven’t got it all figured out yet. This is a revolution in our industry. We need Apple and Amazon and they actually need distributors. They need to have Sony or Warner Bros, who have been doing this for 100 years..”
That being said, Clooney did admit that it was a disappointing that “Wolfs” wasn’t getting the full wide release as had originally been planned with Sony, and was now releasing on Apple TV+ with just a limited theatrical release.
“Brad and I gave some of our salary back to [the limited release]. It’s a bummer, of course, It would have been nice to have gotten a wide release. We’ve had some bumps along the way.”
He noted that his recent directorial effort “Boys in the Boat” was intended for MGM, but “ended up being for Amazon and with no foreign release at all, so there are elements we’re figuring out.”
Pitt also discussed his role as a producer through his banner Plan B (“Bob Marley: One Love”), which he runs with Jeremy Kleiner (who also attended the presser) and Dede Gardner. Besides “Wolfs,” the outfit has several movies at Venice, including Tim Burton’s opening night film “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” as well as the documentaries “One to One: John & Yoko” directed by Kevin Macdonald, and “Apocalypse in the Tropics” directed by Petra Costa.
“We find ways to speak to our time and what we are facing and where we want to be. This is why we’re here,” Pitt said about Plan B’s ambition to produce meaningful movies along with more mainstream output. “These stories will always prevail.”
Clooney, who is also a producer through his banner Smokehouse Pictures, said movies could not always tackle present times instantly due to the process of filmmaking.
“Films are not news. It takes a couple of years to get something together. ‘All the President’s Men’ came up two years after Watergate. So there’s a little bit of history that you can reflect on in films if you can,” said Clooney, who also mentioned his father was a journalist.
“Films get to reflect and look back and say, ‘Well, let’s see. Let’s have some perspective on this.’ Slower, sometimes is a better way of being able to find out where we all land,” continued Clooney who also paid tribute to visionary ’70s films like “Network.” “Watch (that film) again and it’s hard to imagine that everything Patty Schayewski wrote about in 1975 came true.”
Written and directed by “Spider-Man” helmer Jon Watts, the Apple Original Films action-comedy stars Pitt and Clooney as two professional fixers who prefer to work alone, but must come together after being hired for the same job. “Wolfs” also stars Amy Ryan, Austin Abrams and Poorna Jagannathan. A sequel to the film is already in development with Watts and the two stars attached, Apple announced earlier this month.
“Wolfs” marks Pitt and Clooney’s first time co-headlining a film since the Coen Brother’s 2008 black comedy “Burn After Reading.” Prior to that, the two were co-stars in the “Ocean’s” franchise from 2001 to 2007. Both actors have graced the Lido before, with Clooney attending in 2009 for Grant Heslov’s “The Men Who Stare at Goats” and Pitt having premiered David Fincher’s “Fight Club” in 1999 and earning the Volpi Cup for best actor with Andrew Dominik’s “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford” in 2007. Meanwhile, “Wolfs” is Watts’ first time debuting a film at Venice.
After its Venice premiere, “Wolfs” will release in theaters for a limited time starting Sept. 20 before debuting on Apple TV+ on Sept. 27.
