When the stories about Harvey Weinstein began to come out in 2017, I remember George Clooney very quickly made a lengthy statement about Weinstein, who was a frequent producer of George’s films. George acknowledged that he had known some of the Weinstein stuff, from Weinstein cheating on his wife and sleeping with actresses, but denied knowledge of the assaults, harassment and rapes. Clooney’s mind immediately went to problem-solving and I remember he was basically the first person to say: actresses should not be forced into meeting producers in hotel rooms. I mean, I’m not giving him a medal for that, but it was an immediate change and it was something which really bugged him, the reality that it was super-normal to send actresses to Harvey Weinstein’s hotel room for “meetings.” George talked about what other changes have been made in Hollywood and a lot more in a recent Times interview:

How Hollywood changed after #MeToo: “It’s changed in this way… On top of the terrible things Weinstein did, being a jerk at work is now not OK. Just because you’re a boss, it doesn’t mean you get to sh-t on people. I’ve been the boss and the guy being sh-t on. You can’t get away with being a d-ck any more – you’d get ratted out. Now there’s sometimes an overcorrection, where everyone points fingers, but that will settle. It always does. And I can’t imagine some producer having a casting session alone in his hotel room with a young girl any more. It’s moving in the right direction.”

People still need to feel safe enough to speak up: “We’ll know when we see how wrong something else goes. I’m sure there’s more and someone will tell us, then we’ll have to pay attention to it.”

Turning 60: “Turning 60 is a bummer. But it’s that or dead…I said to Amal, knock on wood, I’m healthy. I still play basketball with the younger gang. I feel good. But in 20 years I’m 80 — and 80 is a real number. I said the next 20 years are halcyon and we need to celebrate that, we should focus on the work we do being just the stuff we have to, that we feel in our chest.”

On his motorcycle accident in Italy: “I was waiting for my switch to turn off… I’m fine now.” The actor also recalled a crowd gathering around him following the crash, noting that some were even filming him for the “likes.” “If you’re in the public eye, what you realize when you’re on the ground thinking it’s the last minute of your life is that, for some people, it’s just going to be entertainment for their Facebook page. I’m a pretty positive guy, but that told me — clearly — that you really are here just for their entertainment.”

He’s glad he only found fame in his 30s: “I’m lucky I got famous when I was 33, not 23. I’d have been shooting crack into my forehead if I had been 23 and given money and success. You’re not prepared for it. You need to have failed a s–tload – If you have you never trust success. Every day I think, ‘If all hell broke loose, I have a couple of houses I paid cash for, I could sell one.’ My mentality is still that. Failures teach you everything — you learn nothing from success.”

[From The Daily Mail & People]

“I’d have been shooting crack into my forehead if I had been 23 and given money and success” is just a great sentence. I don’t think he would have been that crazy with early success, but becoming successful later than most actors did inform the man he is today. He still has that thing where he wonders every single day what he would do if he somehow lost his fortune and lost his fame.

As for what he says about bosses not being allowed to be a–holes and bullies anymore… I don’t agree. I think Hollywood is still rife with emotional abuse and toxic personalities in positions of power. Is it different now? Perhaps. I think women in the industry know now that if they want to speak up, people will listen to them and take their stories seriously. But, as George said, the proof of that will come when someone low on the Hollywood chain speaks out about a powerful man now, years post-Me Too.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Avalon Red.

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