George Clooney Declares He’s Done With Acting In Romantic Movies: “I’m Not Trying To Compete With 25-Year Old Leading Men”

In a recent interview with “60 Minutes” to promote his Broadway stage run of “Good Night, & Good Luck,” actor George Clooney declared his intention to pull back on roles in romantic films to allow younger actors to get their leading man shots.

“Look, I’m 63 years old,” Clooney bluntly told Jon Wertheim in his new interview with “60 Minutes” (via People Magazine) expressing his desire to step away from romantic roles as an actor. “I’m not trying to compete with 25-year-old leading men. That’s not my job. I’m not doing romantic films anymore.”

READ MORE: David Leitch In Talks To Direct ‘Ocean’s 14’ With Brad Pitt & George Clooney

Some of those romantic roles were featured in films such as “One Fine Day,” “Intolerable Cruelty,” the underrated remake of Andrei Tarkovsky‘s “Solaris” (produced by James Cameron and directed by Steven Soderbergh), the Jennifer Lopez two-hander “Out of Sight” based on the Elmore Leonard novel (briefly crossed over with Quentin Tarantino‘s “Jackie Brown” via Michael Keaton‘s Ray Nicolette cameo) from Soderbergh, and Jason Reitman‘s anti-committal rom-com “Up In The Air” to name a few.

We don’t know how seriously Clooney is here with this sentiment, but it’s hard to see him turning down future opportunities to direct or act in films focusing on later-in-life romances which is very much a thing that goes on. Even if Hollywood limits how many of those movies are made they tend to see “young love” as their main priority.

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With that said, we have an idea what could be next for the actor as there is a gestating “Ocean’s 14” movie (after a Jay Roach prequel with Ryan Gosling and Margot Robbie attached had trouble coming together) in the works that Clooney is expected to be involved in as he co-wrote the sequel alongside Grant Heslov (“The Agency”) with action-comedy director David Leitch (“The Fall Guy,” “Deadpool 2”) in the mix to helm it for Warners.