George Clooney Opens Up About Career Regrets, Batman and Politics at BFI Southbank

George Clooney has never been one to shy away from a difficult question, and his appearance at BFI Southbank proved exactly that. The two-time Oscar winner visited the iconic London venue to mark the release of his new film Jay Kelly — a story about a world-famous movie star reckoning with his past — and ended up doing something remarkably similar himself. In a wide-ranging, forthright conversation, Clooney pulled back the curtain on a career spanning more than three decades, touching on fame, social media, politics and yes, that superhero misstep we all remember.

Clooney's journey from small-screen heartthrob to one of cinema's most respected figures is the stuff of Hollywood legend. His breakthrough as Dr Doug Ross on NBC's ER in the 1990s launched him into the stratosphere, but the road wasn't always smooth. Speaking to CinemaBlend while promoting Jay Kelly, he reflected honestly on the early failures he had to weather before the real success arrived. Films like Out of Sight, O Brother, Where Art Thou?, Three Kings and Good Night, and Good Luck cemented his status as an actor who could do it all — blockbuster, indie, drama and comedy.

No retrospective on George Clooney would be complete without addressing the rubber-suited elephant in the room, and to his credit, Clooney went there. The 1997 film Batman and Robin is widely regarded as one of the most catastrophic superhero films ever made, and Clooney has never pretended otherwise. His willingness to confront the low points of his career with humour and self-awareness is precisely what makes him so compelling in conversation — and arguably what makes Jay Kelly feel so personal.

The BFI appearance comes off the back of a busy period for Clooney in the public eye. He recently accepted Film at Lincoln Center's prestigious Chaplin Award at a star-studded gala in New York, where tributes came from Stephen Colbert, Julianna Margulies, John Turturro and Sam Rockwell. Ever outspoken, he also used the spotlight to defend late-night host Jimmy Kimmel after Donald Trump called for ABC to sack the comedian, and he has waded into the media landscape debate, taking aim at CBS editorial leadership. With Jay Kelly now out and an Ocean's 14 reportedly in the pipeline, it seems Clooney — who turns 65 in May — has absolutely no intention of slowing down.