actor has to run around the set and change, you know, so that was all playing with, you know, sets in motion and movement. And ‘Good Night, and Good Luck’ I wrote because I was being picketed for being against the war. People forget this now because it’s all very easy because everybody say, ‘Oh, yes, it was a terrible mistake’. But, you know, in 2003 and 2004, there was like five or six of us, you know, saying this is a terrible idea and
everybody else who thought it was keeping quiet because they were really raising hell. And I had a very famous director come up to me and say, [whispers] ‘I agree with you’. And I was like, ‘Why are you whispering?’ And I just remember that feeling that the most patriotic thing you can do in the world is question your government. I believe it and I will always believe it.
16
Is it easy to cast yourself in roles? Well, it depends on the role. This one, ‘Midnight Sky’, the funny thing about it was there’s only a couple other guys for a film that you got to have a name for, there are only a couple of other guys who could really do it. Maybe Matt Damon or Brad Pitt but they’re all they’re too young for it and I’m only a couple of years older than them but I’m a little well-worn I suppose! And it just felt like there really weren’t many other people that were at the right age for this and the right place in their career to do it. So that one was easy. There have been other ones where I had to find something to do. ‘Confessions’ I made myself the CIA and I loved doing that. But for the most part, it’s a real drag directing yourself. I mean, you know, what a horrible, egotistical thing to have to do. If you and I were doing a scene as an actor and actress and we’re talking and we’re doing the scene, it would be thing for me to say, ‘Yeah, maybe if you said it your line a little faster next time’, ‘You could do with a little more like sadness at the end’. That’s a terrible thing for one actor to say to the other actor. And yeah, I will be doing the scene with an actress and be talking and then go, ‘And cut’. It’s a wall you really hate to break so you really have to have a solid understanding with the actors of what you’re doing. Luckily I just had Caoilinn who had never acted before this movie.
You don’t seem to take yourself too seriously? Well, I mean, look, you know, everybody will always say, take your work seriously, but don’t take yourself seriously. And it’s really true. There is such a dangerous place in thinking that you have all the answers.
Can you talk about actors that inspired you? You mean when I was young? I’m still star struck by certain actors. I got a note from Robert Redford the other day and I went upstairs and showed it Amal and go, ‘Look a note from Robert Redford’, who did some of the most interesting films of certainly the late ‘60s and all through the ‘70s that anybody has ever done. Yeah, there were a lot of guys. Paul Newman was a big influence on me because he was really funny and because we had a very funny relationship late in life.
I was also very good friends with Gregory Peck and his wife Veronique, went to their houses for dinners and things. Gregory was the epitome of a gentleman. And also, he did projects with great integrity. He stood for things outside of his business that mattered, which I like to do.
You’ve got so many jobs that you can do now - producing, writing, directing, acting. How do you know what you’re going to do on each? Well, it depends. Usually writing is something that I’ve got an idea of what I want to do.
In general, if you’re going to direct something, it’s two years out of your life, it’s a year-and-a-half anyway. And so it has to be something you’re really excited about. So it has to be something unique and different and out there.
Acting, it has to be a character that that interests me and it has to be a director that I want to work with. I’m lucky, I hit the jackpot. I get to sort of take the jobs. I was a struggling actor for 15 years and I didn’t get to pick anything. Any job you got – ‘Thank you. Thank you. Thank you’. And you’d show up and some guy is a jerk and you’re like, ‘I don’t care. I got a job. I’m getting paid and paying the rent. I’m thrilled to be here.’ If you get lucky enough to be able to pick and to be part of the process and eventually to be the leader of the process, you know, it’s lucky you should be celebrating.
Anybody who’s angry or upset in that position needs some therapy. We get to play make believe and somebody pays us to do it. I cut tobacco for a living for three dollars and 33 cents an hour. And I knew one thing when I left Kentucky, which was I didn’t want to be a tobacco cutter - I was pretty sure of that. And so everything on top of that has been gravy for me.
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CE L EBRIT Y INTERVI EW GEORGE CLOONE Y
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