George Clooney knows there’s a price to pay for his latest role. The actor says his wife Amal and their kids are going to laugh at him when he dyes his hair for his Broadway debut.
Clooney is bringing his 2005 movie “Good Night and Good Luck” to Broadway. But twenty years after he played Edward R. Murrow’s producer Fred Friendly in the film version, he’s taking on the role of Murrow himself on the stage. And that means dyeing his hair jet black.
George Clooney Says His Wife Will Hate His Hair
In an interview with “The New York Times,” the actor says his wife, Amal Clooney is not going to love the look. “My wife is going to hate it because nothing makes you look older than when an older guy dyes his hair.” The 63-year-old says his kids won’t be gentle about the dye job either. “My kids are going to just laugh at me nonstop,” he joked, referring to his and Amal’s 7-year-old twins, Alexander and Ella.
George Clooney Takes on Broadway
“Good Night and Good Luck” is set to debut at the Winter Garden Theater in New York City on March 12 and run for 99 performances. Clooney said theater-goers will see the stage transformed into a newsroom with about 30 monitors moving around, showing old footage.
David Cromer, the play’s Tony Award-winning director, says he wants to “recreate what it’s like to watch television being made.”
“We’re going to do it onstage with cameras and live feed to mix with the real footage,” Cromer says, “so you’ll see George and then you’ll see Joseph McCarthy and you’ll see George and you’ll see Joseph McCarthy.” As in the film, the play uses actual footage of Joseph R. McCarthy, the Wisconsin senator whose name spawned the word “McCarthyism” when he launched a campaign falsely accusing people of being Communists in the 1940’s and 50’s.
George Clooney jokes, “McCarthy is still played by McCarthy, which I’m fairly sure he’s going to get a Tony for.”
Clooney Makes Other Concessions for the Role
In addition to dyeing his hair for the role, Clooney has been perfecting his smoking technique. Edward R. Murrow famously smoked three packs of cigarettes a day before dying of lung cancer at the age of 57.
“I go outside so the kids don’t see and smoke a little bit,” he explained of his character development process, adding that he plans to switch to herbal cigarettes while performing on stage.
Clooney Says His Family Loves the Big Apple
So far, George Clooney says relocating his family to New York City so he could take on Broadway has been a positive experience.
While appearing on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,” Clooney told Colbert, “They love New York! Amal went to NYU, so she’s been here many times,” he said, adding that the family was “having a really fun time” in NYC so far. “I mean, come on, how do you not love this, it’s New York City,” George continued. “They love being here.”
Clooney says navigating the city with his children is keeping him young. In fact, he recent took them bowling. “I haven’t been bowling in 30 years. Oh my God! It’s an amazing thing, getting older, where you think you can still do stuff that you love,” he shared. “We’re riding in the car to school, and I make them listen to heavy metal because I just like it when they sing,” says Clooney. “My daughter has fallen in love with tragic songs. She loves Billie Eilish’s ‘What Was I Made For?’ and Harry Nilsson’s ‘Without You.’ But they’re happy kids, so I’m really lucky.”
Clooney’s Ties to “Good Night and Good Luck” Run Deep
George Clooney not only acted in the movie and now the Broadway version of “Good Night and Good Luck.” He also wrote both the screenplay and the Broadway play with his longtime collaborator Grant Heslov. Clooney also directed the cinematic version, mortgaging his house to help finance the black-and-white film. In the end, it received six Oscar nominations, including best screenplay.
Clooney had intended to play Murrow in the 2005 movie, but changed his mind after the table reading, telling Heslov, “I don’t have the gravitas.” Heslov agreed. Now, two decades later, at 63, Clooney says he’s is ready. “I always felt like there was a sadness to Murrow, and that was not something that you could associate with me at 40 years old,” he says.
But his impending Broadway debut also has him nervous. “I’m terrified of it,” he says in the “New York Times” interview. “Are you kidding? I’m doing 11 monologues. When you get older, your recall isn’t the same. When I was doing ‘ER,’ it was 12 pages of medical dialogue. You look at it in the morning and you say, ‘OK, let’s go!’ Now you get older and you’re going, ‘What’s wrong with me? Well, don’t drink any wine tonight.’”
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