George Clooney Addresses Election Results: ‘This Is Democracy and This Is How It Works’
George Clooney, who was instrumental to Joe Biden stepping down during the presidential election, has taken a common sense approach to Donald Trump’s victory. The actor appeared on The Late Show to discuss his new Broadway play Good Night, and Good Luck, an adaptation of his 2005 film about journalist Edward R. Murrow.
Host Stephen Colbert asked Clooney, who will embody Murrow on stage, “Why do you think it’s a good idea to bring back a play right now about a man in journalism who is standing up against both corporate and political interests?”
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“We planned on doing it about two years ago,” Clooney said. “It’s something we were looking forward to… My partner Grant Heslov and I wrote this 20 years ago because I was being called a traitor to the country for being against the war in Iraq. And they put me on a deck of cards and called me a traitor.” He added, “I’m really proud of that.”
The film, co-written by Clooney and Heslov and directed by Clooney, depicted CBS journalist Murrow’s fight against senator Joseph McCarthy during the height of McCarthyism.
“Forever we have had this issue, which is power hates the fourth estate,” Clooney explained. “They hate journalism. My father is an anchorman and a news man and we’ve always believed in the idea of when the other three estates—the judiciary branch and the executive branch, etc—when they all fail you you really need that fourth estate. It has to be the people who can hold people to account.”
He added of the play, which is set in the 1950s, “This is a moment of us at our best, and I always like to show and I like the idea of seeing ourselves at our best. I think that’s always an exciting thing to do. You’re never at your best when it’s easy. That whole idea of being on the right side of history is not fun when you do it. It’s nice later.”
Eventually, Colbert and Clooney got to the recent election. “We’re kind of talking around what’s always the giant elephant in the room,” Clooney acknowledged. “I was raised a Democrat in Kentucky so I’ve had a lot of fun in my life. You can imagine. It’s been nothing but fun. I’ve lost a lot of elections. The first time I voted it was 1980 so I was a Carter guy and Reagan won. And then I lost to some Bushs and I won with some Clintons and Obamas and then I lost. And, you know, this is democracy and this is how it works.”
“How did it go for you this time?” Colbert asked, referencing Clooney’s public support of the Democrats and candidate Kamala Harris.
“What am I supposed to do?” Clooney replied. “Storm the fucking Capitol? It didn’t work out. That’s what happens. It’s part of democracy. And there’s people who agree and people who disagree, and most of us still like each other. We’re all going to get through it.”
Later, Colbert asked Clooney more about his father, who the actor said taught him “that you defend people with less power than you and you go after people with more power than you.” “And I believe in that,” Clooney said. “And I fail often, as I think we do. But that is okay too.”
Good Night, and Good Luck will run at the Winter Garden Theater. The play begins preview March 12 and opens April 3. It marks Clooney’s Broadway debut.
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