The Jay Kelly star says he would be honoured to work with Dano, Owen Wilson and Matthew Lillard after all three actors were criticised by the director
George Clooney has said he would be “honoured” to work with three actors who were heavily criticised by Quentin Tarantino last month. Speaking at AARP’s Movies for Grownups awards on 10 January, Clooney said: “By the way, Paul Dano and Owen Wilson and Matthew Lillard, I would be honoured to work with those actors. Honoured.”
Clooney continued by describing his new film, Noah Baumbach’s Jay Kelly, as a movie “made by people who love actors – that’s an important part. People I’ve known most of my life … actually, most of them are actors. I have a great affinity [for them], and I don’t enjoy watching people be cruel.”
“We are living in a time of cruelty,” Clooney concluded. “We don’t need to be adding to it.”
In December 2025, Tarantino faced considerable backlash for his critiques of actors Paul Dano, Matthew Lillard and Owen Wilson while appearing on Bret Easton Ellis’s podcast. The director said There Will Be Blood would have ranked higher than No 5 on his personal list of the best films of the century so far, were it not for Daniel Day-Lewis’s co-star.
