Following a four-year hiatus from the film world, George Clooney returned to this particular scene late last year with Netflix’s The Midnight Sky, which he both starred in and directed. Well, rather than take nearly another half decade off, Clooney is back in the director’s chair with The Tender Bar, which stars fellow Batman actor Ben Affleck. The project is currently filming, and an interaction recently happened that presented Clooney as a total class act.
The Tender Bar cast and crew recently stopped by the Wakefield Bowladrome in Wakefield, Massachusetts to shoot some scenes, which included filling the parking lot with period vehicles. Jean Frances, a fan of George Clooney’s, was among the crowd of people gathered outside the Bowladrome to watch The Tender Bar capture footage, and eventually the filmmaker came over to greet them. As Frances told WCVB 5, Clooney apologized for not being able to shake hands with everyone (we are still living through a pandemic, after all), but he did take a selfie with a woman who “begged” for one.
Wakefield is just the latest stop around Massachusetts for The Tender Bar team, with the production having also shot a Yale graduation scene at the Harvard Club and setting up a fictions bar in Beverly. WCVB 5 mentioned it’d seen “similar moments” of George Clooney being generous with his time while in Beverly, but didn’t specify what happened. Still, directing a movie is a difficult job, so the fact that Clooney has been willing to chat a little bit with fans as principal photography unfolds is awfully nice of him.
Based on the same-named memoir by J.R. Moehringer published in 2005, The Tender Bar follows Moehringer in his youthful years growing up with hearing his father’s voice on the radio, which had been his only connection to the man after he disappeared shortly after he was born. However, upon turning eight years old, J.R. is unable to find “The Voice,” a New York disc jockey, anymore, prompting him to form new connections with his uncle and the patrons of a local bar. As he grows older, J.R. finds himself struggling to live up to his mother’s example and continuing to frequent the bar, even when it comes to for him to leave home.
The Tender Bar film adaptation stars Ready Player One’s Tye Sheridan as J.R. Moehringer, Ben Affleck as J.R.’s Uncle Charlie and Lily Rabe as J.R.’s mother, Dorthy, with Back to the Future’s Christopher Lloyd also starring in an undisclosed role, among many others. There’s no word yet on if Clooney will spend any time on camera, but this marks his eighth time directing a feature film. The Tender Bar is also Clooney and Affleck’s second time collaborating, as the former was a co-producer on Argo, which the latter directed and starred in. Amazon Studios acquired the film rights to The Tender Bar in July 2020 after they languished for years at Sony Pictures, and Clooney is also producing through his Smokehouse Pictures production company.
There’s no word yet on when The Tender Bar will be released to the public, but we’ll be sure to let you know when that information is announced. In the meantime, you can keep up to date with the rest of this year’s cinematic offerings with our upcoming 2021 movies schedule.
