In George Clooney’s latest cinematic offering, a character remarks to him, “You’re the American dream, the last of the great movie stars.”
This line, resonating with Clooney’s real-life persona, underscores the parallels between the actor and the seasoned movie star he embodies in Netflix’s “Jay Kelly,” recently unveiled at the Venice Film Festival.
While a celebrated actor portraying a similarly successful character might seem straightforward, Clooney’s performance delves deeper, capturing the unsettling emptiness experienced by an actor reflecting on life’s choices.
The fictional Kelly, universally adored and greeted with his trademark cheesecake (a rider stipulation), confronts the sacrifices made in his career, particularly regarding family life, as he contemplates his legacy.
Director Noah Baumbach explains, “We were drawn to the idea of a movie star facing a crisis and embarking on a journey—both a physical one and an internal, psychological exploration.”
Kelly’s perceived lack of self, Baumbach adds, “became a way to grapple with our identities and reconcile the gap between our public personas and our true selves.”
Though Clooney has spent much of the past decade directing, with sporadic acting roles, “Jay Kelly” marks his return to full-fledged movie star status.
Despite the film’s crowd-pleasing nature, the subtlety of Clooney’s portrayal could position him as a contender in the upcoming awards season, amidst a competitive field of A-list actors.
The narrative follows Kelly’s abrupt decision to halt production a week before filming, triggered by a series of setbacks, including a friend’s death and a tense encounter with a former college roommate (played by Billy Crudup).
Without warning, Kelly jets off to Europe to reconnect with his daughters, with a detour to Italy to accept a lifetime achievement award.
His entourage, including his publicist (Laura Dern) and stylist (Emily Mortimer), reluctantly follows, as Kelly displays little concern for their lives compared to his own.
However, his assistants gradually depart, returning to the US as they realize Kelly’s intent to potentially abandon his career is genuine.
One steadfast figure remains—his manager Ron, portrayed by Adam Sandler, in a performance that reminds audiences of his dramatic prowess.
Sandler told journalists, “As an actor, when you read a script like this you say, ‘Holy [expletive], I can’t believe I’m getting this gift.”
Sandler, Dern, and Crudup, all accomplished stars, agreed that the film prompted them to reflect on their relationships with their Hollywood support systems.
Sandler noted, “I’ve always appreciated my manager, agent, publicist, I just know how hard they work and how difficult it is to hear my ups and downs in life and back me up no matter what.”
“But I do appreciate what they do, and I was excited to play a man who is devoted to somebody. And I admire everybody who does that and how much it means to them.”
Dern cherished the opportunity to portray “the role of the people who have helped raise me in my professional life,” describing her publicist as “a mother figure,” particularly early in her career after she began acting aged 11.
She intends to be more considerate and aware of her own power as a celebrity. “Did I know that my publicist has a family? I definitely did, but I definitely want to be that much more mindful now,” she says.
Initial reactions to the film in Venice have been diverse. The Telegraph’s Robbie Collin lauded it as a “midlife crisis masterpiece” in a five-star review, emphasizing the “knockout” final scene.
“[Jay Kelly] looks like Clooney. He acts like Clooney,” Collin stated. “But perhaps we shouldn’t be too quick to cleanly equate one man with the other – because Jay Kelly isn’t Jay Kelly either, and that’s the problem.”
The Independent’s Geoffrey McNab awarded it four stars, noting, “If Clooney is playing yet another variation on himself in Jay Kelly, at least he’s doing so in a far more raw and revealing way than he has ever done before.”
However, a one-star review from the Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw deemed it a “dire, sentimental and self-indulgent film.”
While Clooney is present in Venice for the film’s premiere and red-carpet appearances, he is absent from the press conference due to a sinus infection. “Even movie stars get sick,” Baumbach quipped.
Despite this, “Jay Kelly”—a name strikingly similar to George Clooney—is generating considerable buzz.
Baumbach shared, “I’ve known George over the years and I’ve been wanting to find something to do with him, and early on [when writing the script], we began to say, this is going to be George.”
Actors often shy away from playing versions of themselves, preferring dramatic transformations. However, Baumbach believes Clooney’s real-life popularity enhanced the project.
“I felt it was important the audience watching the movie have a relationship with the actor playing the character.”
“The character is running from himself for so much of the movie, deflecting and trying to hide, and what essentially I was asking of George was to reveal more and more of himself as he does it.”
With the Oscars still months away, Clooney is among the A-list contenders positioning themselves for a highly competitive best actor race.
Leonardo DiCaprio, Timothée Chalamet, Daniel Day-Lewis, and Dwayne Johnson are just a few of the names starring in films tailored for awards season campaigns.
The fact that Hollywood often embraces films about itself could also bode well for “Jay Kelly” during awards season.
Clooney, 64, could secure a Golden Globe nomination and is vying for his first Oscar nomination for acting since “The Descendants” in 2012. However, it remains to be seen how his performance stacks up against the competition.
Baumbach, an Oscar familiar (Dern won an Oscar for his 2019 film “Marriage Story”), appears to be back in top form after his less successful previous project, “White Noise.”
The director concludes, “If you make a movie about an actor, you’re making a movie about identity and performance and a search for self.”
“Actors are always trying to find themselves within a character, and asking where they fit in, it’s a character outside themselves. And I think it was something we felt we are all doing essentially as we go through life.”