Celebrity News February 01, 2016
George Clooney Takes on Diversity in Hollywood
“Extra” host Mario Lopez sat down with George Clooney and Channing Tatum, two of People's former Sexiest Men Alive, to talk about their new film “Hail, Caesar!” and diversity in Hollywood.
Channing took a few minutes before George sat down to gush over Mario and his performance in “Grease: Live!” He told Mario, “You were great on the show last night!”
Clooney and Tatum had a great time in “Hail, Caesar!” a comedic take on old Hollywood. George plays movie star Baird Whitlock, who gets kidnapped by a mysterious organization. Mario asked, “George is it safe to say that your character is a bit of an idiot?” George replied, “I think that's a fair statement, I think that's fair.”
Channing showed off his dancing skills (and not the “Magic Mike” kind) as Burt Gurney, a song-and-dance man, revealing he didn't really know what he was getting into when he read the script. “They didn't have any of what I was going to be doing in the script.” George said, “Tell him what the line said in the script.” Channing explained, “It basically said 'and then they dance and do a knee slide to like a bucket of water.'" Channing pulled it off with some epic tap dancing, adding, “I don't know how to tap dance and I don't know how to sing, so it was just two things after they start rolling things out that they want you to do.”
While the movie is based on old Hollywood, Clooney was taking on a real-life Hollywood issue: diversity in films. “The reality is talking about diversity in the Academy is a good thing… but that's really sort of the end of the food chain… When I'm directing a film, and most of the films I have done have been historic, you're not going to change the race. You get a list of five actors that they'll finance the movie for, if you don't get one of those actors the movie doesn't get financed, so it would be nice to change that list… It requires the entire industry to take a look at what it takes to finance a film.”
