George Clooney and Brad Pitt Are Buddy-Buddy at Venice

They’ve brought their casual movie star act to the international film festival, discussing the future of streaming and Joe Biden. Photo: Apple TV+

On Sunday, journalists at the Venice Film Festival were treated to a double-header of the George Clooney-Brad Pitt comedy act. The morning brought the first press screenings of Wolfs, in which the pair play rival fixers — think Harvey Keitel in Pulp Fiction — forced to work together. The afternoon brought them back together for the film’s official press conference, which was more or less an opportunity for them to play George Clooney and Brad Pitt in front of dozens of international reporters.

The buddy act started from the very first question, when the pair were asked what made them want to act together for the first time since 2008’s Burn After Reading. “The restraining order was up,� Pitt quipped. “Just cash,� Clooney said with a shrug.

The truth, Pitt said, was that “as I get older, working with people that I enjoy spending time with is really important to me.� Besides Burn After Reading and the three Oceans movies, Pitt also had a cameo in Clooney’s directorial debut, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind. Earlier this year, both were also among the credited voice cast for John Krasinski’s If, though given that Pitt’s character was completely silent, it’s safe to believe they do not count this as an official collaboration.

“There’s a rhythm to talking on top of each other,� Clooney said. “It just felt easy.�

To hear them tell it, that ease extended to the film’s production. Writer/director Jon Watts pitched the actors, wrote a first draft that they liked, and that was that. “It’s never happened, where someone presents you with an idea, you get a first draft of the script, and that’s what you end up shooting,� said Pitt. The experience was so breezy, in fact, that there wasn’t even an expectation of which actor would play which role. “When Jon sent us the script, he didn’t tell us which part� he wanted them to play, Clooney said. “We talked to each other on the phone and we both figured out which one we were.�

These are two of our most casually charismatic stars, and thirty years into their careers, a festival press conference is the kind of thing they can handle as naturally as launching tequila brands. Wolfs was produced by Apple, and was originally set for a wide release, only for the tech giant to scale back plans at the last minute. Nevertheless Clooney handled multiple questions about theatrical versus streaming as diplomatically as possible. “We’re figuring it out,� he said. “This is a revolution in our industry. We need Apple and Amazon, and they need the distributors. We haven’t quite got it figured out, but we’re getting there.� Both actors gave back a portion of their salaries to help fund the theatrical release, though Clooney pushed back on a recent New York Times story that claimed he and Pitt had been paid $35 million each. The real number, he said, “was millions and millions of dollars less than what has been reported. And I only say that because it’s bad for our industry if people think that’s the standard for salaries.�

The moderators at Venice are not shy about keeping the assembled press on-message. (Pitt’s divorce from Angelina Jolie, which necessitated a healthy gap between the festival premieres of Wolfs and Jolie’s Maria, was not mentioned.) But one reporter did manage to sneak through a question for Clooney about his July op-ed calling for Joe Biden to drop out of the presidential race. He waved off the small swell of applause from the crowd. “The person who should be applauded is the president, who did the most selfless thing a president has done since George Washington,� Clooney said. “All the machinations that got us here, none of that’s going to be remembered, and shouldn’t be. What’s going to be remembered is his selfless act.�

Emboldened by this, the next questioner attempted to get Clooney and Pitt to say something about the rise of Fascism around the world — to the moderator’s clear dismay — but was met only with a vague quote about art’s ability to address injustice. Then it was back to the movie. What did it say that, in 2024,a film starring George Clooney and Brad Pitt couldn’t even get a wide release? This was more comfortable territory. “It means we’re declining,� Clooney said, to a room full of laughter.