George Clooney: I’m Not Doing Romantic Movies Anymore

George Clooney spoke with 60 Minutes about the upcoming Broadway adaptation of his 2005 Oscar-nominated movie, "Good Night, and Good Luck". 

In the play, Clooney, 63, portrays newsman Edward R. Murrow, a role he said he was not ready to play when he directed the movie in 2005.

“Murrow had a gravitas to him that at 42 years old I didn’t — I wasn’t able to pull off,” he said.

The flip side of that, said Clooney, is that there are roles he once played for which he’s now no longer a fit.

The "Ocean’s Eleven" star used to be one of the most sought-after screen heartthrobs, starring as the romantic lead in films such as "One Fine Day", "Intolerable Cruelty", and "Out of Sight".

“Look, I’m 63 years old,” the actor added. “I’m not trying to compete with 25-year-old leading men. That’s not my job. I’m not doing romantic films anymore.”

Not that he’s been doing many, anyway.

While Clooney was promoting "Ticket to Paradise" in 2022, he noted that he hadn’t made a romantic comedy since 1996.

Beyond having the gravitas to play Murrow, Clooney said that he finally feels able to hold his own on a Broadway stage.

“I don’t know that I could’ve [done it before]. I wasn’t — I didn’t do the work required to get there," he continued. “I mean, there isn’t a single actor alive that wouldn’t have loved to have, you know, been on Broadway. So that’s — that’s the fun of it.”

Clooney does have a pretty good model for how to navigate away from being a romantic lead.

“[Paul] Newman was the best at this,” Clooney told the Washington Post in 2022. “He figured out, [with] The Verdict, quite honestly, that he was a character actor and he accepted that role. He didn’t fight it or push and try to get his face done or look younger and act younger. He just said, ‘Okay, that’s who I am now,’ and he changed expectations a little bit.”