Thank you, George Clooney, for talking about David O. Russell the right way
George Clooney is still one of the biggest actors around. Just ask your mother. But he isn’t wasting time with directors who are going to make his life a living hell. Clooney did the most iconic of things and threw a controversial director under the bus out of nowhere.
During a GQ profile wit Clooney and Brad Pitt, the two were talking about choosing projects. During a question for Pitt about exploring aspects of himself through acting, Clooney took the moment to really drive home how much director David O. Russell sucks.
“People who like what they do. Like, you were talking about time allotment. The older you get, time allotment is very different. Five months out of your life is a lot,” Clooney said. “And so it’s not just like, ‘Oh, I’m going to go do a really good film, like Three Kings, and I’m going to have a miserable fuck like David O. Russell making my life hell. Making every person in the crew’s life hell.’ It’s not worth it. Not at this point in my life. Just to have a good product.”
Oh boy is this glorious. David O. Russell is known for accusations of being abusive on his sets. There are reports that he physically assaulted Christopher Nolan and put him in a headlock. We’ve heard tell of what he did to Amy Adams and other women on his sets. All of this to say that many in the industry have said he’s not a good man to work for or just in general and yet he continues to have high profile actors work with him.
One of the people he was combative with was Clooney, so it isn’t surprising that the writer, director, and actor is not a fan of Russell now. But the way Clooney called him out is how everyone should be doing this.
More calling out Russell, please!
I think that someone like David O. Russell gets away with what he does because people think he’s some kind of genius. I don’t get it, but some people out there see his movies as next-level pieces of art. In my opinion, they’re fine. To have someone like Clooney openly talking about how hellish Russell makes his sets? I love to see it.
Movies like Amsterdam baffled the mind because why were all those actors still working with him? It wasn’t enough to hear the stories or see how he treated actors on other sets? You also wanted to be in a bad movie in the process? Clooney may be coming at it from a point of “I don’t have to work with people like that,” but when more and more people talk about directors like Russell, it helps other actors down the line who don’t have as much say in the matter.
Not everyone gets to stand up against a bully director like this. To have high profile actors like Clooney continuing to remind everyone who sucks in Hollywood kind of rules.
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