Life Imitates Art 

Multiple Oscar winner George Clooney attended last year’s Venice Film Festival with Jay Kelly, a dramedy in which he portrayed an aging star (his mown age, 64), who travels to Italy to receive a life achievement award.

Now the  actor-director-producer and writer is getting a real Venetian tribute, accepting the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement Award on the festival’s opening night, Wednesday, September 2.

Before accepting his honor, Clooney sat for a press conference, addressing a range of topics, including the fraught state of politics in Trump’s America, the rise of artificial intelligence, and Paramount’s ongoing and very controversial attempt to merge with Warner Bros.

“I support Mark Ruffalo’s ability to speak freely,” Clooney said when asked about the controversy. “It’s ridiculous. We’re not going to ban speech. I believe in free speech even when I completely disagree with it. That’s important. In fact, it’s part of how democracy works.”

Clooney called the pending merger “a complicated thing” and suggested he “doesn’t know how it works out.”

“I don’t see how the merger financially ends up making sense for the people who are trying to do it. We’ll see. I worry when a big company swallows up another company,” he said. “I always worry whenever big companies are consolidating because it means a lot of people are going to lose their jobs.”

On the topic of AI, Clooney predicted that it’s “going to be a very big part of this industry” and worries that “it’s going to hurt us in a lot of ways.” He expressed a concerned about the complications that AI will pose for actors, joking: “I would like to avoid being in a tampon commercial 20 years after I’m dead.”

State of Journalism

Clooney was also probed about the state of journalism, having directed 2005’s Good Night, and Good Luck, a drama about the conflict between the veteran CBS reporter Edward R. Murrow and Senator Joseph McCarthy.

Clooney also adapted the film into a play and earned a Lead Actor Tony Award nomination in 2025 for playing Murrow in his Broadway debut, a limited, sold-out run.

Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk

“The state of journalism is in question. The richest people in the world are owning the Washington Post and Twitter, and that is a concern,” he said, referring to Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk.

Yet Clooney remains essentially optimistic. “There’s a lot of room for great journalists. I do believe that information will find its way out.”

kakistocracy

Clooney has long been one of president Donald Trump’s most outspoken critics, so naturally the actor was asked about his feelings on the state of democracy right now.

“How do you see the state of the country?” Clooney said with laugh.

“There’s a great word, kakistocracy, which is a country run by the least qualified people. I think maybe we have a kakistocracy right now, but we’ll get through it. We will have an election in November that should be a check in balance. And then in 2028, we will have a restoration of some normalcy.”

Clooney has a long history with the Venice Film Fest, having first attended with Soderbergh’s 199 film ”Out of Sight” and returning many times with movies such as “Good Night, and Good Luck,” 2007’s “Michael Clayton,” 2013’s “Gravity,” 2017’s “Suburbicon,” 2024’s “Wolfs” and 2025’s “Jay Kelly.”

Clooney had to miss last year’s press conference for “Jay Kelly” because he was battling sinus infection.

Clooney’s been getting nostalgic as he prepares to receive a career honor.

“I’m 65 years old — everything is melancholy. You brush your teeth and you’re like, ‘My teeth used to be so much better.’ Everything about getting older…,” he said. “I also feel very lucky. I have an incredible wife (Amal, the Lebanese-born world-renowned human rights lawyer and activist) whom I love very much and she loves me. I have great kids. I think life is pretty good.”

Although he’s directed several films —recently the 2023 sports drama “The Boys in the Boat,” Clooney is stepping back as a filmmaker to focus on acting.  The reason: He wants tn order to spend more time with his young children.

More Character Actor than Romantic Star

“I have two 9-year-old kids,; Clooney said about his twins. “If I act in a movie, it’s three months away. When I direct a movie, it’s a whole year. And I can’t do that anymore. I can’t pull the kids out of school anymore. I’m happy to being just an actor, again. It’s still fun. I’m more of a lead character actor now.”

New “Oceans” Heist with Brad Pitt and Matt Damon

Clooney teased hi excitement for one upcoming project — a new “Oceans” heist with Brad Pitt and Matt Damon. “I would do anything with them. As soon as we get our schedules to work, we’re going to film the fourth official picture in the franchise (which began in 2001 with Steven Soderbergh’s all-star blockbuster, Ocean’s Eleven.”