Getting Tender with George.
ButGeorge Clooneycalls direct from Australia, where he’s currently shooting a romantic comedy with Julia Roberts.
“No, no publicists around here,” he says, laughing.
George Clooney directs Daniel Ranieri on the set of ‘The Tender Bar’.CLAIRE FOLGER/AMAZON
“It’s just kangaroos and me.”
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: You’ve directed movies based on books before Confessions of a Dangerous Mind,Monuments Men.
Do you find it easier to be working from real-life source material or no?
Ben Affleck in ‘The Tender Bar’.Claire Folger/Amazon Studios
You know, I don’t know.
The good news with having a book is it gives you a palette to work from.
So you always have to change it up a little bit.
Just slice those Condors in half and you’re good.
Was it that he was just less expensive than Matt Damon or
[Laughs]It was.
Hard times, and we thought we could get him cheap.
And both of us at the same time thought about Ben.
We’ve worked with Ben before.
We like him a lot.
He’s very smart, which this character has to be.
He’s well-read, as Ben is.
To me, it was always like listening to the Sopranos doing Shakespeare.
Didn’t know what his world was like.
Did you have an Uncle Charlie?
He was a bad drunk.
He also happened to be the funniest man alive, and in the summers I would stay with him.
No, you treat them like tiny adults.
They’re so much smarter than we give them credit for, they know exactly what’s going on.
I played it back and looked at it and said “We got it.”
That’s unheard of.
I remember finding out Noah was actually British, that kind of blew my mind.
He’s very special young man, Noah.
And I was like, “I got one for you.”
I would do that with Daniel in a heartbeat too.
The scene-setting and the era is so specific inThe Tender Bar.
How real did that 1972 or 1983 feel to you on set?
Since I lived through those pretty well, it felt exactly right.
And that’s the fun part.
That’s how I remember it too.
We only knew him in black and white.
Adult dramas have obviously struggled in the last few years to compete theatrically.
It was always difficult to find a place for them to exist.
So that’s the good news.
I mean, you always have to fight.
I’m also doing a film with Brad [Pitt] for Apple and that’s a big-budget film.
The secret is you have to work to guarantee that there’s also a theatrical release.
They were like, “Yeah, that’s not really our thing anymore.”
So the streamers have really opened up a door in a way to keep those kinds of stories alive.
Okay, last question.
Are you maybe getting softer
Am I mellowing in my old age?
There have been huge dividing lines.
There are people who are kind to one another and love one another."
And I just liked that.
