George Clooney has been in the acting game for a long time, and has even directed stars like Ben Affleck. He’s worked with a lot of the biggest names in Hollywood, frequently appearing alongside the likes of Matt Damon and Brad Pitt. Now he's getting set to reunite with another one of his Ocean Eleven’s co-stars, as he is joining Julia Roberts in the upcoming Ticket to Paradise, which will be his first romantic comedy in a number of years.
In an interview with Deadline, George Clooney comments on what has turned him on to starring in another rom-com, a genre he hasn’t really explored since 1996 when he in was in One Fine Day opposite Michelle Pfeiffer. According to Clooney, Ticket to Paradise is “something special.” Said the actor/director,
This guy named Ol Parker is a really wonderful writer and director, and he wrote us a script, and I haven’t done a romantic comedy really since One Fine Day...
Even though George Clooney is one handsome man, and had been considered one of the biggest Hollywood heartthrobs for decades, he isn’t a face you typically place at the head of a rom-com. More often than not he is doing more dramatic work, and even when he is doing comedy it's typically not of the romantic variety.
That doesn’t mean there hasn’t been romance in his films, though, and in the same interview, George Clooney recognizes his history of “snarky” on screen romances (which is presumably how he categorizes Joel and Ethan Coen's satirical Intolerable Cruelty with Catherine Zeta-Jones). Another big title that comes to mind is, of course, Clooney and Julia Roberts’ relationship in the Oceans Eleven series. Clooney recalls consulting Roberts on committing to Tickets of Paradise, saying,
I’ve done some sort of snarky ones, you know, and in this one Julia and I just get to be mean to each other in the funniest way, and the minute I read it I called Julia, and I said, ‘Did you get this?’ and she said, ‘Yeah,’ and I said ‘Are you going to do it?’ and she goes ‘Are you going to do it? and I said, ‘Yeah, if you do it.’ So, it was just one of those very lucky things.
It’s interesting that George Clooney is going back to the romantic comedy genre, especially now that he has turned 60. Clooney doesn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon, though. If anything, he is speeding things up in both his life and career. In addition to continuing to make films, such as last year's The Tender Bar, the star became a parent a few years ago when he and his wife Amal Clooney had twins. Clooney has been vigilant about shielding them from his fame as he continues to work steadily as an actor and filmmaker.
It’s not surprising that George Clooney is teaming back up with Julia Roberts when breaking back into the rom-com genre, as the two have worked together number of times over the years – shared credits including not only the Oceans trilogy, but also Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (which Clooney directed) and Money Monster. The pair is pretty much always impressive on screen together, so fans should be in for quite the rom-com experience come October 21 when Ticket To Paradise hits theaters.
Head over to our 2022 Movie Calendar to discover all of the films coming out in the next 11 months.
