George Clooney says he is “a little irritated” by director Quentin Tarantino making comments about whether he is considered a movie star.
The Hollywood actor had his first significant big screen part when he starred opposite Tarantino in 1996 cult vampire film From Dusk Till Dawn, directed by Robert Rodriguez.
Clooney, 63, was asked by GQ magazine about whether he should point out to Tarantino that he is available for casting.
He replied saying: “Listen, I did a movie with Quentin. He played my brother.”
Hollywood actor Brad Pitt, who was also being interviewed, jumped in saying: “Oh, that’s right. He was pretty good in it too.”
However, Clooney said Tarantino’s acting was “OK”, before adding: “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 you (Brad), 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.”
While regular Tarantino collaborator Pitt was laughing, Clooney said: “So now I’m like, all right, dude, fuck off. I don’t mind giving him shit. He gave me shit.
“But no, look, we’re really lucky we got to work with these great directors. (The) director and (the) screenplay is what keeps you alive.
“And I learned that after doing some really bad films. You can’t make a good film out of a bad script. You can’t do it. You can make a bad film out of a good script. You can fuck it up.”
It is unclear which interview Clooney is referring to.
In 2022, Tarantino hit out at the “Marvelisation of Hollywood”, referring to the increase in superhero movies.
He told Tom Segura’s 2 Bears, 1 Cave podcast: “You have all these actors who have become famous playing these characters. But they’re not movie stars.
“Captain America is the star, or Thor is the star. I think that’s been said a zillion times … but it’s these franchise characters that become a star.”
Tarantino directed Pitt in the films Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood and Inglourious Basterds, and also directed an ER episode featuring Clooney.
Elsewhere in the GQ interview, Pitt says that he became aware of Clooney after the crash involving Diana, Princess of Wales as he was outspoken about feeling “horrible” being followed by the paparazzi.
Pitt said: “It’s really invasive to know people are out there and they’re hiding in the bushes. It’s really a shitty, shitty feeling.
“And so George got up and commented on that after Diana, Princess of Wales. And that’s when I saw ‘this guy’s got something that the rest of us don’t’. Like, I saw the leader in that moment.”
Clooney said he and his Ocean’s Eleven and Burn After Reading co-star have been “friends for a long time”, and they check in on each other often.
He also said: “We deal in very serious subject matters, with very serious bad guys, and we don’t want to have photos of our kids out there.
“So we have to work hard at trying to stay private, and it’s tricky, as you can imagine. There’s times you will avoid going to the hospital with something that you would normally go to the hospital for.”
While Pitt agreed, Clooney added: “You will assess how bad something is before you go.”
They will star opposite one another in Wolfs, about fixers forced to work together.