Donald Clarke: George Clooney is giving up romance at 63. Don’t people of his age deserve love?

Donald Clarke - The Irish Times - 30/03
The star says he’s too old to play any more romantic leads. But something odd has happened: that kind of big film has almost vanished

Stewart Granger, the charming matinee idol of the mid-20th century, once bemoaned the inconvenience of ageing into an older leading man rather than a craggy character actor. Boo hoo! I’m too handsome. I still have to play the suave shipping magnate rather than the dropsy-addled bar-room incontinent.

Anyway, fans of George Clooney have been throwing themselves from skyscrapers after learning he is no longer to take on romantic leads. “Look, I’m 63 years old. I’m not trying to compete with 25-year-old leading men,” he told CBS. “That’s not my job. I’m not doing romantic films any more.”

[ George Clooney: ‘I told Amal, I can still do everything I did when I was 30. But in 30 years, I’m 90. That’s a real number’Opens in new window ]

Mary Kate Carr, writing in the AV Club, pitched in with the inevitable “Say it isn’t so, George!” There was more good-natured rending of garments elsewhere in the George-aligned media. He’s 63. Don’t people of tha...
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