George Clooney ‘irritated’ with Quentin Tarantino over career diss

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George Clooney has hit out at director Quentin Tarantino after the filmmaker questioned his ability to draw audiences to his movies.

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In a joint interview with his Wolfs co-star Brad Pitt in the latest issue of GQ to mark the upcoming release of their Apple TV+ movie, Clooney revealed that he is “irritated” with Tarantino, who he acted opposite in From Dusk Till Dawn.

Clooney, 63, commented when he was asked by the magazine whether there was a sense of competition between him and Pitt after Tarantino had hired the latter to act in several of his projects, including his Oscar-winning role in 2019’s Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood.

“Quentin said some s*** 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 (Pitt), 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 f***ing career,’” Clooney said.

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“So now I’m like, all right, dude, f*** off. I don’t mind giving him s***. He gave me s***,” he added.

Clooney was referencing an interview Tarantino did with Deadline last year, in which the Pulp Fiction writer-director questioned Clooney’s status as a movie star.

“It’s been a long while since I think George Clooney has drawn anybody to an audience,” Tarantino said. “When was the last time that he had a hit in this millennium?”

Pitt, 60, evidently found Clooney’s response funny as GQ noted he laughed and called Tarantino’s performance in From Dusk Till Dawn “pretty good.”

“There’s a scene, I’m blanking on it. But he’s really good,” Pitt said.

Clips of Clooney imitating Tarantino went viral last year after George appeared to mock Quentin’s suggestion that they looked alike as the reason he was cast in the 1996 horror.

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But Clooney turned serious as he credited his work with good writers and directors for his longevity in Hollywood.

“We’re really lucky we got to work with these great directors. Director and 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 f*** it up,” Clooney said.

He added that as he ages, he’s looking for roles that mean something to him, but he also wants to have a good experience making movies.

“The older you get, time allotment is very different. Five months out of your life is a lot. And so it’s not just like, ‘Oh, I’m going to go do a really good film, like Three Kings, and I’m going to have a miserable f*** like David O Russell making my life hell. Making every person in the crew’s life hell.’ It’s not worth it. Not at this point in my life. Just to have a good product,” Clooney said.

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Pitt, who made headlines back in 2022 when he told GQ he was on the “last leg” of his acting career, grew more philosophical as he spoke about his career, which was kickstarted by a scene-stealing part in 1991’s Thelma & Louise.

“If it feels right, I just trust that barometer and go,” Pitt said of his current work.

Clooney has appeared in fewer movies recently. Wolfs, in which he and Pitt play two fixers who are forced to work together, and an upcoming dramedy opposite Adam Sandler and Laura Dern mark a return in front of the camera. Next year, Clooney will also appear for the first time on Broadway in a staging of Good Night, and Good Luck.

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Back in 2017, he told Postmedia he was keenly aware of how time was shifting and wanted to lean into that more with his acting career.

“I still read scripts every once in a while,” he said. “I used to read three or four a week, now I read one every two months. I’m waiting for another Michael Clayton or another Descendants,” he continues name-checking two of his Oscar-nominated roles.

“I was shooting (2010’s) The American in Italy and I was turning 50 and I was like, ‘OK, understanding your age and knowing what’s age-appropriate, this is the last time I’m going to kiss the girl. This is the last time I’m going to be that guy,’” Clooney recalled of that experience. “So I got in shape and did everything else and then I was done with that. The guys that I loved and the people I was friends with – Paul Newman, Gregory Peck – watching how their careers morphed into other things and how they became character actors (was important).”

Even back then, nearly seven years ago, Clooney was adamant he wasn’t going to act just to keep his name in the public eye.

“I’m not going to do stuff just to be on camera anymore …I don’t want to come in and be a bad guy in a Transformers movie – it’s just not who I am and it’s not what I’m good at … I don’t do these things for money anymore,” he said.

After a one-week theatrical run on Sept. 20, Wolfs hits Apple TV+ on Sept. 27

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