George Clooney’s over it. Over what, you might be asking? Well, he’s done “kissing girls” and making romance films — which, when you think about being a go-to romantic lead made him the heartthrob he is in the zeitgeist, is truly the end of an era.
“I’ve been trying to go the route Paul Newman did — ‘Okay, well, I’m not kissing a girl anymore,’” Clooney recently revealed in an interview with the Daily Mail, noting that it was a bit of a discussion in his household before he made the official call.
He continued: “When I turned 60, I had a conversation with my wife. I said, ‘Look, I can still play basketball with the boys. I play with 25-year-old guys. I can still hang, I’m in shape. But in 25 years, I’m 85 years old. It doesn’t matter how many granola bars you eat, that’s a real number.’”
Clooney is one of Hollywood’s most storied actors, with a resume brimming with beloved rom-coms like Up in the Air alongside Vera Farmiga, Ticket to Paradise alongside Julia Roberts, and One Fine Day alongside Michelle Pfeiffer. He’s also known for his strong leading man qualities, which he exemplified in films like Ocean’s Eleven, Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr. Fox, O Brother Where Art Thou?, and Gravity, among many others.
This isn’t the first time Clooney has spoken on the decision. “Look, I’m 63 years old. I’m not trying to compete with 25-year-old leading men,” he told 60 Minutes back in March. “That’s not my job. I’m not doing romantic films anymore.”
It’s not an easy job, being a leading man, so it seems fitting that Clooney wants to hang up that hat. In fact, he previously spoke about getting critiqued on the set of a romantic film years ago. “I remember early on in my career, I had to do a kissing scene with this girl and the director goes, ‘Not like that,’” he told the New York Times in 2022. “And I was like, ‘Dude, that’s my move! That’s what I do in real life!’”
Clooney’s most recent project was Netflix’s new film Jay Kelly, where he, in fact, kept his word about not kissing any girls. What’s next? In October, Clooney insisted Ocean’s 14, the highly anticipated sequel film to the iconic remake caper, had been greenlit and would most likely start filming next year — with the big names from the 2001 original set to reprise their roles.
Lex Briscuso is a film and television critic and a freelance entertainment writer for IGN. You can follow her on Twitter at @nikonamerica.
