George Clooney Had A Petition To Support Sony, But No One Would Sign
George Clooney has a lot to say about the Sony hack. In an interview with Dateline published today, Clooney revealed he circulated a petition to Hollywood heavyweights that denounced the hackers and supported the studio, but no one would sign. The actor also said the result of the hack, which saw Sony cancel the release of The Interview, prevents him from making the films he wants to make.
Clooney provided the statement in his petition to Dateline, which the website reproduced in the body of the interview. It was circulated by Clooney and his agent.
“It was sent to basically the heads of every place. They told [Clooney’s agent] Bryan Lourd, ‘I can’t sign this.’ What? How can you not sign this? I’m not going to name anyone, that’s not what I’m here to do, but nobody signed the letter.”
Of greatest concern to Clooney was the apparent chilling effect the film’s cancellation would have not only on Hollywood, but media reports in general on oppressive regimes. As discussed in a previous Inquisitr article, Clooney’s father was a journalist, and the actor has referred to himself as “the son of a news man” on more than one occasion.
“Here, we’re talking about an actual country deciding what content we’re going to have. This affects not just movies, this affects every part of business that we have. That’s the truth. What happens if a newsroom decides to go with a story, and a country or an individual or corporation decides they don’t like it? Forget the hacking part of it. You have someone threaten to blow up buildings, and all of a sudden everybody has to bow down.”
George Clooney also categorized the movie that was the center of the controversy, The Interview, as less than a piece of cinematic art.
“This was a dumb comedy that was about to come out. With the First Amendment, you’re never protecting Jefferson; it’s usually protecting some guy who’s burning a flag or doing something stupid. This is a silly comedy, but the truth is, what it now says about us is a whole lot.”
Clooney was not alone in expressing disapproval at the cancellation of The Interview’s release. Michael Moore tweeted about his own film’s controversies, and put in a few “special requests” to the Sony hackers.
Dear Sony Hackers: now that u run Hollywood, I’d also like less romantic comedies, fewer Michael Bay movies and no more Transformers.
— Michael Moore (@MMFlint) December 17, 2014
Moore specifically recounted his own experience with Fahrenheit 9/11, a film released in 2004.
Received numerous threats before release of Fahrenheit9/11. We were warned not to show it. This deterred none of us from releasing it. #cave — Michael Moore (@MMFlint) December 18, 2014
Clooney told Dateline his opinion as to why Sony chose to pull The Interview completely after initially leaving it up to the discretion of theater chains.
“They pulled the movie because all the theaters said they were not going to run it. And they said they were not going to run it because they talked to their lawyers and those lawyers said if somebody dies in one of these, then you’re going to be responsible.”
Us Weekly reported today that there may still be hope for The Interview, as a new trailer was just posted for the film.
As for Clooney, he admitted his own interest in not bowing to the hackers was preserving his ability to make the kind of movies he’s interested in.
“Frankly, I’m at an age where I’m not doing action films or romantic comedies. The movies we make are the ones with challenging content, and I don’t want to see it all just be superhero movies. Nothing wrong with them, but it’s nice for people to have other films out there.”
[George Clooney image via Wikipedia]
