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The way George Clooney talks about it, playing the romantic lead is a young man's game, and he's fine not playing it. And while you might take that as a sign the One Fine Day star, 64, is aging gracefully in an industry that too often puts on overemphasis on youth, we should point out that there's a pretty recent example of an older movie star playing the lead in a romantic comedy.

That is, Ticket to Paradise star George Clooney.

Some context here - Clooney recently did a wide-ranging interview with Variety regarding his storied career and the pivot he's currently making in it. In fact, he did the interview as part of a promotion for his new film Jay Kelly, a movie that requires Clooney embrace his age and play a "post-marquee" Hollywood A-lister. Speaking about what his next steps might look like, Clooney emphasized he won't be seeking out romantic leads anymore.

"If you’re trying to hold on to being a romantic leading man at my age, it gets sad," Clooney told his interviewer. "I don’t want to be pathetic."

OK, first of all, I don't know that even Batman & Robin viewers can call someone like George Clooney truly 'pathetic,' but as we mentioned above, Clooney's own career seems to contradict at least part of what he was saying. Released in 2022, Ticket to Paradise sees Clooney starring opposite Ocean's Eleven costar Julia Roberts in a romantic comedy, and while the film did receive some moderate backlash from critics, what they didn't seem to have a problem with was Clooney, then-61, as a romantic lead.

That said, Clooney does make an important point about longevity in Hollywood. Namely, that trying to fit a role not intended for you does no one any good. And looking back over his career, Clooney says that never having been put in a box of only leading men roles did help him greatly.

"Most of my successes were middle-of-the-road hits," the O Brother Where Art Thou star recounts, "And that’s lucky, because I was never typecast. I could do all kinds of things. I could do movies that were very serious, like Michael Clayton, and then do something wild like Burn After Reading. It meant that once I couldn’t kiss the girl anymore, I could still have a career."

Point taken, George. But for real, no one here is saying no to a One Fine Day 2. Anybody know what Michelle Pfeiffer is up to?

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