George Clooney’s secret to a lasting marriage? A little wisdom that only comes with age.
During an interview with CBS News’ Seth Doane that aired on Sunday, Clooney spoke about growing older and how it’s changed the way he sees himself, his marriage, and his career.
Before the segment started, Doane asked if Clooney wanted to check his reflection on camera, but the actor waved him off, saying he was “too old” to care. At 64, Clooney added, he’s learned to let go of his vanity.
“You’re chasing your tail, man. It’s going to bite you,” Clooney told Doane. “I am who I am. I look like what I look like, and it’ll be all right.”
The “ER” star added that he doesn’t dwell on getting older.
“Well, it’s aging or death. These are two options, right? I’m OK with it. You know, I feel more grounded. Certainly, I’m less angry,” Clooney said.
That’s part of why his marriage to Amal Clooney works so well, and why they’ve never had an argument, he said.
“Well, when you’re younger, you want to be right about everything, you know. ‘Don’t paint that color on the wall,'” Clooney said. “And you know, Amal and I — everybody gets ticked off when I say it — but we’ve never had a fight. We never had an argument. And some of it is because I’m at this point in life where if she wants to paint the wall red, I don’t care.”
Clooney said he no longer sweats the small things.
“You get to a point in life where you just go, ‘Why would that be a discussion or an argument?’ We have a really amazing relationship because we’re also so supportive of each other that it’s like, I don’t care,” Clooney said, adding that might not have been the case when he was younger.
“I think I would have found things to, you know, stick my chest out about that I can go now, ‘It doesn’t matter, I don’t care,'” he said.
The actor also has no plans to retire just yet.
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“I’m going to keep working. You know, I like it, but I don’t have to work all the time now. I want to work, but I don’t want to fill my life with work,” he added.
Even though he’s still fit now, Clooney acknowledges that age will eventually catch up to him.
“Things change. And it doesn’t matter how many granola bars you eat; it catches you. So, we have to focus on making sure we work. I work, she works. We also have to focus on spending time with our family, spending time with the people we love,” Clooney said. “More time, because at the end of your life, you don’t go, ‘I wish I worked more.'”
This isn’t the first time Clooney has shared his thoughts on aging.
Speaking to Vanity Fair in August about his latest movie, “Jay Kelly,” Clooney reflected on the limits he faces in the industry as an older actor.
“I literally said to him, ‘Noah, look, I love the script. I love you as a director, but I’m 63 years old, dude — I can’t do 50 takes,'” Clooney said, recalling a conversation with the film’s director Noah Baumbach. “‘I don’t have it in me. I’ve got the acting range from A to B.'”
In October, Clooney told Esquire about what it’s been like to watch his parents grow older.
“My parents are dealing with all the things you deal with with age,” he said. “They’re not thrilled about it, as you can imagine. We — none of us are, I guess. I’m not thrilled with being sixty-four.”
A representative for Clooney did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent by Business Insider outside regular hours.
