George Clooney Remembers ‘Mortgaging His House’ for ‘Good Night and Good Luck,’ Praises ‘Badass’ Wife Amal and Offers Aspiring Filmmaker a Job at Venice Masterclass

George Clooney, who received the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement from his “Jay Kelly” co-star Laura Dern on opening night of the 2026 Venice Film Festival, sat down for a masterclass at the Lido’s Match Point Arena to look back on a career spanning nearly five decades.

His relationship with Venice stretches back nearly three decades, beginning with “Out of Sight” and continuing with films including “Good Night, and Good Luck,” “Michael Clayton,” “Gravity,” “Suburbicon,” “Wolfs,” and, last year, Noah Baumbach’s “Jay Kelly.”

During the wide-ranging talk, Clooney reminisced about the risks he took to make “Good Night, and Good Luck” two decades ago, recalling that he “mortgaged my house to make it” before bringing the film to Venice in 2005, where he watched it with an audience for the first time.

The story — about legendary CBS journalist Edward R. Murrow standing up to Sen. Joseph McCarthy at the height of the Red Scare — remained deeply personal to Clooney, whose father, Nick Clooney, was a journalist and news anchor.

He said he felt compelled to revisit the film on the stage at a moment when its themes of press freedom, political intimidation and the responsibility of journalists to challenge those in power still strike a chord.