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George Clooney delivered a moving speech about the power of art in times of political turmoil at Venice Film Festival as he accepted the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement.
“We’re living through a moment in time where
the people in charge and people with the most money are telling us to fear one another,” Clooney said on Wednesday night during the festival’s opening ceremony. “But we know better than that, don’t we? Because history does teach us a lesson.”
He continued, “The first people that authoritarians try to shut down are not politicians. They’re journalists who ask questions, they’re the artists who refuse simple answers, the filmmakers, writers, actors and musicians who insist that someone you never met is deserving of your empathy.”
Clooney asserted that “stories are always dangerous to people who peddle in fear” and “the people who are afraid of books and music and stories are never the heroes in history.”
He concluded, “So yes, movies don’t stop wars, they don’t lower inflation, they don’t fix elections. But they do do something remarkable. They remind us that a stranger is never stranger … if we can still sit together in the dark and care about people we’ve never met, I think we’ll be OK.”
The Oscar-winning actor, director and producer is no stranger to Venice, having attended the past two editions with his Brad Pitt buddy crime caper “Wolfs” in 2024 and Netflix’s meta actor drama “Jay Kelly” last year. The historic city is also where he tied the knot with his wife, Amal Clooney, back in 2014.
On the red carpet ahead of the ceremony — which will be followed by the world premiere of Danny Boyle’s “Ink” — Clooney charmed the crowd like a true movie star, signing autographs for fans and posing with a crowd photographers, playfully stealing one of their cameras to snap a pic. Screams of “George!” echoed across the Palazzo del Cinema as even the police officers working the event tried to take photos of the guest of honor.
In a meta twist, Clooney’s tribute reel began and ended with a clip from “Jay Kelly,” where his movie star character receives a fictional career achievement award at an Italian festival. He was presented the award by his “Jay Kelly” co-star Laura Dern, who both toasted and roasted her longtime friend.
“He is a man of the deepest kind of humanity and integrity, a man who lives for service and truth, and within that must tell stories … stories that look at protecting our freedoms and hold others accountable,” Dern said. “Oh, and all while he’s doing that stuff … he happens to be the best friend you could ever have and the funniest person you could ever meet. And, yes, the most handsome. And, yes, he was voted Sexiest Man Alive two times. Two times!”
Dern then shared statements from Clooney’s friends and collaborators, including Pitt, who revealed that despite his many talents, Clooney is not that great a dancer.
“George’s stories get better with each telling. He ages as gracefully as an old gouda. He can do, perform, accomplish, compete at most anything and does it better than any of us,” Pitt said. “But please, please keep him off the dance floor — he doesn’t know!”
Dern added, “And now, this pigeon-toed kid from Kentucky, elder statesman, who when you can’t get Brad Pitt you know Clooney will show up because he never met an award he wouldn’t run to, is getting a lifetime achievement award!”
Despite the celebratory tone in the room at the opening ceremony, Clooney did not shy away from answering the hard questions during an earlier press conference, addressing the looming Paramount-Warner Bros. merger and the current controversy surrounding Mark Ruffalo’s criticism of it.
“I support Mark Ruffalo’s ability to speak freely,” Clooney said, adding about the pending deal: “I don’t see how the merger financially ends up making sense for the people who are trying to do it. We’ll see.”
Asked about the current state of the U.S., Clooney taught the room full of journalists a new word: kakistocracy, which means “a country run by the least qualified people.”
“I think maybe we have a kakistocracy right now, but we’ll get through it,” he said. “We will have an election in November that should be a check and balance. And then in 2028, we will have a restoration of some normalcy.”
Along with his Golden Lion, Clooney will also be delivering a masterclass at the festival on Sept. 3, which promises to dive deep into his nearly five-decade career. He is one of only three people to have been nominated for six different Oscar categories — best picture, director, actor, supporting actor, original screenplay and adapted screenplay — winning for supporting actor in “Syriana” in 2005 and best picture as one of the producers of 2012’s “Argo.” Some of his most memorable roles include the “Ocean’s” franchise (2001-2007), “The Descendants” (2011) and “Gravity” (2013), while he has also made his mark as a director with films like “Confessions of a Dangerous Mind” (2002), “Good Night and Good Luck” (2005) and “The Tender Bar” (2021).
