George Clooney is no longer interested in romance on the big screen.
During a recent interview with the Daily Mail, Clooney said that after having a discussion with his wife, Amal Clooney, about his age, he will no longer be “kissing girls” in movies.
“I’ve been trying to go the route Paul Newman did — ‘Okay, well, I’m not kissing a girl anymore,’” Clooney said.
He added, “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 made his career as one of Hollywood’s most popular romantic leads. Some of his credits include romance films like “One Fine Day” with Michelle Pfeiffer, “Out of Sight” with Jennifer Lopez, “Up in the Air” with Vera Farmiga and “Ticket to Paradise” with Julia Roberts.
The “Ocean’s Eleven” star may have been hinting at this decision for a while. He told “60 Minutes” back in March that he was stepping away from “romantic films” entirely to make room for Hollywood’s new crop of leading men.
“Look, I’m 63 years old. I’m not trying to compete with 25-year-old leading men,” he said. “That’s not my job. I’m not doing romantic films anymore.”
In a 2022 sitdown with the New York Times, Clooney recalled that even early in his career, he had trouble with a director who criticized his on-screen kissing technique.
Clooney said, “I remember early on in my career, I had to do a kissing scene with this girl and the director goes, ‘Not like that.’ And I was like, ‘Dude, that’s my move! That’s what I do in real life!’”
