Interview

by PigPen Sat 06 Jan 2024, 15:36

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'Cause I'm old': George Clooney on directing Boys in the Boat and why he loves period dramas

After reading so much about George Clooney’s charisma one expects to be immune to his charms but this is certainly not the case – he is utterly magnetic.

Clooney sits down to discuss 'The Boys in the Boat', his ninth film as a director and the second period-piece sports film he has made, following the 2008 jazz-age football comedy Leatherheads.

Alongside the film’s star Callum Turner, who plays the film’s main character, he admits he doesn’t set out to make period pieces although he did grow up watching “old-fashioned dramas”.

“It’s just how it’s ended up,” he says with a sweet sigh. “I like those kinds of old stories and period pieces. I think it’s just maybe because I’m old. I’m up here.”

Set during the Depression, the film tells the story of a crew of nine working-class lads who, under the tutelage of their coach Al Ulbrickson (Joel Edgerton), muscle their way to victory over Ivy League snobs and wind up competing in the Olympics.

It’s a classic underdog story that packs on the nostalgia and feels almost quaint in its earnest belief in values such as diligence, resilience and teamwork.