George Clooney is lamenting conglomerates taking over Hollywood.
The actor told GQ UK that studio Paramount, which is behind his film “Wolfs” alongside Brad Pitt, is akin to a “mom-and-pop shop” nowadays.
“Paramount’s one of the great original studios,” Clooney said when asked about how Hollywood has changed. “But some of it you just have no say in. Because the business, it’s all getting eaten up. It’s like everything – it’s all getting eaten up by big Walmarts and Amazons around the world. Our version of mom-and-pop shops in a small town is Paramount.”
Of course, Amazon bought out MGM Studios (and has its own Amazon Studios) and also has streamer Prime Video. Walmart, meanwhile, has not quite gotten into the filmmaking realm yet, aside from a pitch-perfect faux “Mean Girls” sequel featuring most of the 2004 cast in a commercial. (Walmart’s free-shipping subscriber program Walmart+ does include access to Paramount+.)
Clooney continued that studios are not as invested in actors anymore compared to the days of Old Hollywood.
“They haven’t developed stars the way the studio system used to,” the “ER” alum said. “We kind of were at the very end of that, where you could work at a studio and do three or four films, and there was some plan to it. And I don’t think that’s necessarily the case any more. So it’s harder for you to sell somebody something on the back of a star.”
He added, “But it’s a great time as a young actor. Because when I was a young actor, if you looked at the back of the ‘LA Times’ every Monday morning they had the 64 shows that were made. And of those 64 shows, if you’re actually on one of them, you’re trying to be in the top 20 to keep your show on the air. But that was it. And then the studios were doing five films a year. Now there are 600 shows, so there’s a lot more work for actors.”
Like he and Brad Pitt, for example. Talk about Old Hollywood.
“It’s been like 40 (years) for us already, which is fucking scary,” Clooney said. “I remember I talked to [Matt] Damon about this 25 years ago, when he first hit with his movie and won the Oscar. I was like, ‘Just know that if you get a 10-year career, playing at that level, it’s an absolute jackpot.’ Nobody sustains it much longer than that. So yeah, I’m surprised that I still have the work.”
