Oscar winner George Clooney denied the claim that he and Wolfs co-star Brad Pitt were paid around $35 million each for the film, as reported in New York Times article.

The duo brought their banter to Venice Film Fest for the world premiere of Jon Watt’s action comedy Wolfs, in which they play competing criminal fixers accidentally assigned to the same job.

The two movie stars and real pals traded friendly jabs, praise and filmmaking insights in Italy at a press conference for Wolfs.

Clooney explained that the pair gave portions of their salaries back after a theatrical deal fell through for the film, meaning it gets a limited release in “a couple of hundred theaters,” and brought up a New York Times article published last week by Nicole Sterling that said he and Pitt were paid more than $35 million each.

“[It was] an interesting article and whatever her source was for our salary, it is millions and millions and millions of dollars less than what was reported. And I am only saying that because I think it’s bad for our industry if that’s what people think is the standard bearer for salaries,” Clooney said. “I think that’s terrible, it’ll make it impossible to make films.”

“We wanted it to be released in theaters. We’ve had some bumps along the way, that happens. When I did the biographical sports drama The Boys in the Boat, we did it for MGM, and then it ended up being for Amazon and we didn’t get a foreign release at all, which

was a surprise. There are elements of this that we are figuring out. You guys are all in this too. We’re all in this industry and we’re trying to find our way post-COVID and everything else, and so there’s some bumps along the way. It is a bummer of course, but on the other hand, a lot of people are going to see the film and we are getting release in a few hundred theaters, so we’re getting a release. But it would’ve been nice if we to have a wide release.”

Just days before the two movie stars landed in Venice, news broke that Watts has a deal in place with Apple to write and direct Wolfs sequel. It is unclear if Clooney and Pitt have also signed on for the follow-up.

Clooney Praises Selfless Joe Biden

Clooney also commented publicly for the first time about his op-ed for The New York Times titled, “I Love Joe Biden, But We Need a New Nominee.”

He said that the President’s move to step down as Democratic presidential nominee was “the most selfless thing that anybody has done since George Washington.”

Wolfs will launch on Apple TV+ on September 27, following its September 20 limited theatrical release via Sony.