George Clooney has opened up about how he finds directing “more fun” than acting in a new interview to promote his upcoming film, The Boys In The Boat.
Clooney has directed the film, which explores the story of the University of Washington’s rowing team. The film charts their Depression-era beginnings to their winning gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics in Hitler’s Nazi Germany and features Callum Turner, Joel Edgerton and Peter Guinness.
In an interview with Sky News about the film and how he found directing compared to acting, Clooney said: “It’s more fun, you have a lot more control. I get to boss them around and I don’t have to learn how to row,” he joked.
He continued: “Directing is a fun thing to do. It’s fun to come in in the morning and it’s fun to write a screenplay and then have somebody build a set that you wrote, it really is.
“As you get older, you need to have other things to do. You can’t just do one thing,” he continued. “I’m lucky because I’m 62 and I get to do the stuff I love, and a lot of people don’t get that.
“I’m well aware of it, and I celebrate it because, you know, if I’m not having fun, I think people would be really pissed off. If they look at my life, you go, ‘If you’re not enjoying that, then, you know, then who knows.’”
Clooney isn’t planning on leaving acting anytime soon, however. Elsewhere in the interview, he opened up about his upcoming action-thriller film Wolves with Brad Pitt.
“I still like acting, I have fun,” he continued. “I just did a film with Brad Pitt, he’s an up-and-coming actor,” Clooney deadpanned.
Back in December, Clooney also confirmed that a fourth Ocean’s movie is in the works.