The stories of George Clooney’s paydays are legendary. His Gravity payday and the suitcases full of $1 million going to 14 of his closest friends. The Nespresso ads that pay for a spy satellite in Sudan. Now an alleged $35 million salary to star in Wolfs for Apple TV+, according to an article in the New York Times. But Clooney says it isn’t so. At a Venice press conference, Clooney says he and Brad Pitt were paid less than $35 mil each for the film, and even returned some of that lesser fee in hopes of securing a wider release for the film. “By the way, there’s a really good reporter, Nicole Sperling for the New York Times, she wrote an interesting article about it,†he said, “and whatever her source was for our salary, it is millions and millions and millions of dollars less than what was reported. And I am only saying that because I think it’s bad for our industry if that’s what people think is the standard bearer for salaries.â€
Clooney said it was a “bummer†that Wolfs wasn’t getting a wider release. “There are elements of this that we are figuring out. You guys are all in this too. We’re all in this industry and we’re trying to find our way post-COVID and everything else, and so there’s some bumps along the way,†he said. “It is a bummer of course, but on the other hand, a lot of people are going to see the film and we are getting a release in a few hundred theaters, so we’re getting a release.†Real glass half-full guy, that George Clooney.