Ah yes, Clooney vs. Tarantino. It’s a subtle feud that’s been simmering for a few years, sparked by a QT remark that seemed to bruise the actor’s ego.
It all began in 2019, when Tarantino called George Clooney “not a true movie star” in an interview, which annoyed the actor enough for him to respond that he was “a little irritated.”
Clooney was blunt: “So now I’m like, all right, dude, f— off. I don’t mind giving him s***. He gave me s***.”
Now that Tarantino is in trouble again—this time criticizing Paul Dano, Owen Wilson, and Matthew Lillard for their acting—Clooney saw an opportunity to chime in call out his old nemesis.
“By the way, Paul Dano and Owen Wilson and Matthew Lillard, I would be honored to work with those actors. Honored,” Clooney said while accepting an award at AARP’s Movies for Grownups Awards on Saturday. He described “Jay Kelly” as being “made by people who love actors — that’s an important part. People I’ve known most of my life… actually, most of them are actors. I have a great affinity [for them], and I don’t enjoy watching people be cruel.”
It’s worth noting that Clooney wasn’t asked about Tarantino’s comments on Dano; he brought it up offhandedly in his speech, which makes the dig, and this evolving feud, all the more amusing.
Back in that 2019 interview, Tarantino had said: “It’s been a long while since George Clooney has drawn anybody to an audience. When was his last hit where he drew an audience?”
Taking in those comments, Clooney responded in a 2024 GQ interview:
Quentin said some shit about me recently, so I’m a little irritated by him. He did some interview where he was naming movie stars, and he was talking about [Pitt], and somebody else, and then this guy goes, ‘Well, what about George?’ He goes, he’s not a movie star. And then he literally said something like, ‘Name me a movie since the millennium.’ And I was like, ‘Since the millennium? That’s kind of my whole fucking career.’
He added, “So now I’m like, all right, dude, fuck off. I don’t mind giving him shit. He gave me shit.”
The Telegraph’s Tim Robey agrees with Tarantino. In a write-up published not too long after the actor’s comments, he wrote Clooney’s last 20 years “have not done a great deal to sustain the stardom.” Clooney’s most recent leading role was in the moderately successful, entirely bland “Ticket to Paradise.”
Clooney, whose tequila business has reportedly generated more than $500M, has mostly been directing these last 10 years, helming “Suburbicon” (2017), “The Tender Bar” (2021), and “The Boys in the Boat” (2023). Sure, he was once a movie star, but that was a long time ago, but over a 40-year career he really has had just three major box-office hits: “Ocean’s Eleven,” “Gravity,” and “The Perfect Storm.”
In the meantime, Clooney recently decided to leave the United States, opting to live as a French citizen with wife Amal, where they were both granted citizenship by France’s government.
Zobel broke out with "Compliance" (excellent) and "Z for Zachariah" (fine) before building an excellent prestige TV résumé: "The Leftovers," "Westworld," "Mare of Easttown," and most recently, "The Penguin."