When Meryl Streep used her Golden Globes acceptance speech for the Cecil B. DeMille Award to blast Donald Trump for his bullying tactics, she was criticized for being an out-of-touch Hollywood elitist. Now George Clooney is defending her against hypocritical Trump supporters.
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In a recent interview with Canal+ Clooney argued, “This is the part that makes you a little crazy. When Meryl spoke, everyone on that one side was, ‘Well that’s elitist Hollywood speaking.’ Donald Trump has 22 acting credits in television … He collects $120,000 a year in his Screen Actors Guild pension fund. He is a Hollywood elitist.”
Clooney also took aim at Trump’s chief strategist Steve Bannon, who used to run the right-wing Breitbart News website before joining Trump’s campaign and is a reputed white nationalist. “Steve Bannon is a failed film writer and director. That’s the truth, that’s what he’s done. He wrote a Shakespearean rap musical about the L.A. riots that he couldn’t get made. He made a lot of money off of ‘Seinfeld.’ He’s elitist Hollywood, I mean that’s the reality.”
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Canal+ interviewed Clooney ahead of the 2017 Cesar Awards (France’s equivalent to the Oscars) on Friday, February 24, where the actor-director is receiving an honorary award. “The most charismatic actor of his generation, George Clooney embodies the Hollywood glamour that big cinema stars have. His charm, sense of humor, personality and engagement are at the heart of our perpetual and eternal admiration,” said France’s Academy of Arts and Techniques of Cinema in a statement.
Clooney was last seen on-screen in a pair of 2016 films, “Hail Caesar!” and “Money Monster.” His last film as a director was “The Monuments Men” in 2014, but his next directorial effort, a crime comedy called “Suburbicon,” will be released in 2017.
