George Clooney Returns Fire at Quentin Tarantino After Recent Diss

Clooney said that he was "irritated" after Tarantino questioned his "movie star" status.

By Michael Hein

George Clooney just responded to a diss that director Quentin Tarantino lobbed at him last summer. During an interview with Deadline, Tarantino was skeptical that Clooney should be counted among true "movie stars" of his generation. Clooney brought it up in a new interview with GQ this week, admitting that the comment still bothered him.

Clooney sat for a profile interview with his friend and frequent collaborator Brad Pitt that GQ published on Wednesday. They got on the topic of how actors and directors choose who to work with at the highest level, and Tarantino was one of the top examples. However, Clooney said that wasn't a great direction to take the conversation, because he had a specific issue with Tarantino at the moment.

For full context, Tarantino gave a long-form interview with Deadline in July of 2023 at the Cannes Film Festival. He said that the modern definition of a "movie star" has been shifting for years now because he feels that studios don't invest in cultivating and promoting talented actors – rather, they capitalize on the stars that come their way. However, he conceded that some A-listers deserve the title, saying: "I think Margot [Robbie] has become a movie star, I think Bradley Cooper has become a movie star, Julia Roberts will always be a movie star... Well, I'm not saying that the guys who are movie stars aren't movie stars."

When the interviewer brought up Clooney, Tarantino answered: "Well, it's been a long while since I think George Clooney has drawn anybody to an audience. When was the last time he had a hit in this millennium?"

That was the comment on Clooney's mind this week when GQ asked he and Pitt are "competitive" for the attention of great directors. Clooney pointed out that he and Tarantino had worked together on From Dusk Till Dawn, even appearing on screen as brothers. Pitt chimed in: "Oh, that's right. He was pretty good in it too," but Clooney said: "He was okay in it."

"Quentin said some s- about me recently, so I'm a little irritated by him," Clooney went on. "He did some interview where he was naming movie stars, and he was talking about you, and somebody else, and then this guy goes, 'Well, what about George?' He goes, 'He's not a movie star.' And then he literally said something like, 'Name me a movie since the millennium.'"

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"I was like, 'Since the millennium?'" Clooney said incredulously as Pitt laughed. "That's kind of my whole f-ing career! So now I'm like, all right, dude, f- off. I don't mind giving him s-. He gave me s-."

So far, Tarantino has not responded publicly to this interview or the fact that Clooney is still stewing on his insults over a year later. Clooney and Pitt co-star in the upcoming crime thriller Wolfs, which premieres on Sept. 27. 

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