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Being George Clooney: How the ER star and Adam Sandler get meta for Netflix in a movie they will tell you is not about them
George Clooney is Jay Kelly in a new movie by the co-writer of Barbie that is about an actor called Jay Kelly that is very like the actor George Clooney
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Who is Jay Kelly, the character at the center of the new movie directed and co-written by Noah Baumbach, the man who co-wrote 2023’s Barbie? It’s George Clooney, of course — but that connection goes far deeper than just Clooney playing the titular lead of the movie. In many ways, Jay Kelly is George Clooney… who is Jay Kelly. Confused yet?
Maybe the first trailer for the new Netflix production will help make things clearer:
Jay Kelly is a movie about actors, aging, and movies — all things that are near to Clooney’s heart, as well as that of Baumbach. But Kelly (the character) isn’t merely a character that Clooney understood, but something that scared the actor when initially offered the role. “I literally said to [Baumbach], ‘Noah, look, I love the script. I love you as a director, but I’m 63 years old, dude—I can’t do 50 takes,’” Clooney told Vanity Fair when talking about the project. “‘I don’t have it in me. I’ve got the acting range from A to B.’”
So what sealed the deal? The opportunity to take on such a complicated role, the actor says… especially at this point in his life.
“When you’re an actor in my position, at my age, finding roles like this aren’t all that common,” Clooney admitted to Vanity Fair. “If you can’t make peace with aging, then you’ve got to get out of the business and just disappear.”
Sounds like exactly what Jay Kelly (the movie) is all about. Which is kind of the point.
Jay Kelly will be released in select theaters November 14 and on Netflix December 5.
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