George Clooney didn’t try to sugarcoat how terrible 2020 has been for most people in a new interview with The Guardian that was published Sunday.
The 59-year-old Midnight Sky star admitted this ‘has been a crappy year for everyone,’ even as he expressed hope that ‘we will come out better’ on the other side.
The occasional director also opened up about about how his relationship with his wife Amal Clooney began, and how the two have angered everyone from Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán to UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
Telling it like it is: George Clooney, 59, admitted 2020 has ‘been a crappy year’ but said ‘we will come out better’ as he looked back at his career and marriage in a Guardian interview published Sunday; seen in May 2019
Clooney was interviewed via video chat from his LA home while his twins Alexander and Ella, three, were out on the estate’s tennis court learning to ride their bikes.
He didn’t have any illusions about how tough this year has been for so many people.
‘This has been a crappy year for everyone. Started badly and ran badly all year long, until recently,’ though he thought he was still ‘lucky.’
‘I ended up having a successful career. I wound up living in a home with some space in it. We can walk around outside,’ he said.
The ER star said his family hadn’t left their home much since March due to Alexander’s asthma, which could put him at greater risk of serious complications if he was exposed to the novel coronavirus.
‘They say [COVID-19]’s not so bad on young people. But do we know that? We don’t know anything about the longterm of this yet,’ he mused.
Not great: ‘This has been a crappy year for everyone. Started badly and ran badly all year long, until recently,’ Clooney said, though he thought he was still ‘lucky’; seen with Amal Clooney in May 2019
Clooney also revealed that he’s conflicted about wanting to let his children learn from negative experiences while still trying to keep them safe.
‘The idea of them falling is not my favorite thing,’ he said. ‘And I try to give ’em enough room to make their mistakes.
‘There’s a lot of things you try not to do that your own parents did. Not because your parents were bad parents. But because you can see the way it has affected you… You’re trying to break the chain, man.’
Amal Clooney, a respected human rights lawyer and activist gave birth to their twins in 2017, after marrying the actor in 2014 in Venice.
Safety first: The actor has mostly stayed at his LA home with his family, as his son Alexander, three, has asthma, which puts him at greater risk if he contracts COVID-19; seen in May 2019
Clooney revealed that it was a hyperbolic statement from Boris Johnson that helped make a good impression with his future wife.
While in the UK to promote Monuments Men, which he starred in, directed and co-wrote, he opined that the UK should return the Parthenon marbles to Greece.
The statement fit with the theme of the film, about art experts rushing to save treasures of European art from being looted or destroyed by the Nazis.
‘And that was when your current prime minister compared me to Adolf Hitler,’ Clooney said. ‘Literally compared me to Hitler.
Awkward: Clooney recalled how he was compared to ‘Hitler’ by UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson while promoting his film Monuments Men, about the fight against Nazi art looting
Coincidence: Clooney had suggested the Parthenon marbles be returned from the UK to Greece, which turned out to be a subject of agreement with Amal, whom he was dating, because she represented Greece in the matter; seen in May 2019
‘It still makes me laugh,’ he added. ‘Bit of a stretch. But he said my comments about the Marbles made me an art thief like Hitler was an art thief.’
He continued: ‘It was kind of great for me! Because Amal and I were secretly dating at the time. No one knew. There was all this uproar about what I’d said. And I was meeting Amal for dinner that night.’
It just so happened that she had worked as a lawyer for Greece regarding the return of the marbles.
‘She goes to me, “Y’know I’ve worked on that case? So listen. Here’s a lot of stuff you should say,’ he revealed, which helped him come off as an expert the next time the subject came up.
Clooney also spoke about getting into a feud with Hungary right-wing prime minister Viktor Orbán, whose government called the director a fool in a statement after he used the politician as an example of populist figures who erode civil liberties.
Feud: Clooney was recently called a ‘fool’ by right-wing Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s government after he criticized his record on civil liberties while promoting The Midnight Sun
At the time of his statements, Clooney was promoting his new science fiction film The Midnight Sky, which is being distributed by Netflix.
He plays one of the few survivors on Earth following a global catastrophe, and the only person still in contact with a group of astronauts, led by Felicity Jones, who are scheduled to return to Earth.
Clooney’s character tries to warn them away from returning to the devastated planet, but its complicated by a young girl he has to take care of and Jone’s character’s pregnancy.
The character was written to be pregnant to match Jone’s real-life pregnancy. She gave birth in September.
Dark: Clooney stars as a lonely scientist on a devastated Earth trying to warn astronauts (led by Felicity Jones) not to return to Earth