he last time I talked to Clooney was during the pandemic; I have a memory of him, hair grown out and shaggy, speaking to me on Zoom from his living room, holding his son in his lap. The last time I talked to Pitt was in a tiny pool house in La Cañada at a home that belonged to neither of us. Looking at the view in front of us now, I keep trying to decide which of these three experiences was the most surreal. But surreal is kind of the way it goes with these guys.

GQ: George, you’re coming from the set of this Noah Baumbach film. In the past decade, you’ve made a point of not acting much, especially in films that you didn’t also direct. Now, with Wolfs and the Noah Baumbach project, you’re starring in other people’s movies again. Why?

George Clooney: The main reason is that it is a year on the road to direct, and now my kids are of a certain age. We’re not going to uproot our kids out of school and run around. Before that, they could just come with us and we would all go. But that’s different now. So now I’m going to just probably focus on other things, like acting.

Brad, you and I once had a conversation where you too said something to the effect of: “I’m just trying to work less.” You were doing one movie a year, maybe.

Brad Pitt: Well, now I’m doing one movie in a year and a half. [Laughter.] No, I’m still kind of on the same trajectory. I feel the same. I’m really just trying to enjoy the people that I love around me and just living. [He gestures out at the vineyard.] I don’t know how to not sound cheesy about it, but just the air is fresh and grass is green and I’ve just kind of become that guy a little bit.

Clooney: It’s also, there’s an interesting thing that happens—you’re 60 now, right?

Pitt: Yep.

Clooney: [Chuckles.] It makes me laugh. When I turned 60, my wife and I had a nice dinner. We were talking and I said, “Look, I’m 60.” Now I’m 63. And I said, “So here’s the thing, I can still play basketball with the boys. I can still hang, do a lot of stuff. Physically, I’m in pretty good shape still.” I said, “But it doesn’t matter how many granola bars I eat. In 20 years, I’m 80. And that’s a different number.” That’s a real number where your bones are brittle and your muscle mass is gone. So it changes. So these next 20 years we have to really focus not just on work, although you’ve got to continue to work. We also have to focus on life.

Pitt: You start to understand this idea of mortality [Clooney laughs knowingly] and that it is something we all have to deal with. You just become more aware of it.

In Wolfs, you guys both play hypercompetent guys, very good at what you do, but maybe you’re aging out. I understand that art is not life, but I wondered if you identified.

Clooney: Look, we’re not stupid. But I also do feel like there’s still some gas in the tank.

One thing you once said to me was, “If you look at actors’ careers—like Cary Grant’s, for instance—they are shorter than you think.”

Pitt: Is it? Are they?

Clooney: Dude, yeah. It’s like 20 years. It’s short. But Cary Grant, he was interesting. He saw himself in a movie, I can’t remember who he was opposite. And he just said, “I look too old to be kissing that girl.” And he quit. And he had another 20 years of just being Cary Grant in life. But a lot of actors that you think of—Clark Gable, those guys—it wasn’t as long as you think. Twenty-five years, tops. And, you know, it’s been like 40 for us already, which is scary. [Ed note: Grant and Gable both had careers that lasted a little longer than 20 or 25 years. But the point stands.]

Are you surprised you’re still going?

Clooney: Yes! I remember I talked to 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.

Brad, one thing you like to say in interviews is: “I’m on my last leg.”

Pitt: I meant that as seasons. You know, there was moving out from the safety of the Ozarks. You embark on this thing and it’s all about discovery and it’s really exciting and interesting and painful and awful and all of it. And then when you’re allowed into the big leagues, it becomes another game of responsibilities and things to answer to. But also opportunity and delight and working with people you really respect. And then it’s this time now. It’s: What are these last years going to be? Because I see my parents are very—I see just what George was explaining. In your 80s, the body becomes more frail. And yet I look at Frank Gehry. He’s just the loveliest man. And he’s 95 and still making great art and he’s got a beautiful family. And I think that’s kind of the formula to stay creative and keep loving your life.

Clooney: We’re lucky too. We’re in a profession that doesn’t force you into retirement.

Well, there’s two sides of that coin, right? There is that cliché for actors of: All of a sudden the phone stops ringing.

Clooney: Okay, but there’s two ways of doing this, right? The phone stops ringing if your decision is that you want to continue to be the character that you were when you were 35, and you want a softer lens. But if you’re willing to, say, move down the call sheet a little bit and do interesting character work, then you can kind of—you have to make peace with the idea that you’re going to die! I will walk up to people and they’ll be like, “Oh, you’re older than I thought.” And I’m like, “I’m 63!” It’s just: That’s life. And so as long as you can make peace with the idea of change, then it’s okay. The hard part is, and I know a lot of actors who do this—and you do too—who don’t let that go and try desperately to hold onto it.

Clooney: You’re also much more willing to make fun of yourself. When you’re young, you’re always trying to protect something. When I first got to the place where I could pick a movie, I took everything that came my way. Because I didn’t understand that I was going to be held responsible for the movie. So I get offered Batman & Robin, I call my friends like, “I’m going to be Batman!” You don’t really think it through. And then after I did that for three films, where they didn’t really work, I was like: Oh, I’m going to be held responsible. I need to go back to: good script, good director, if I’m allowed to pick. And that means you have to take money out of the issue. Because remember: When you’re first famous, when somebody offers you a lot of money, you’re like, “I’ve never been offered money before. I’ve never been offered anything.”

Brad, do you feel the same way?

Pitt: What he’s talking about is the realization of how much of it is on your back. And then you go, “Okay, that’s all right. But I’m going to pick.” When you realize you’re responsible, then you step up and you start making calls. Like, I got in my contract when I did Seven, having had a bad experience on a movie before where they edited out scenes I thought were vital, in Seven I put it in my contract: The wife’s head stays in the box.

Clooney: I bet they tried to take it out, didn’t they?

Pitt: Absolutely. And the character kills John Doe. I got both in my contract. So sure enough, when it comes time, they come and they go, “You know, he’d be much more heroic if he didn’t.” And you go, “Yeah, he would. But he’s not.” And then: “It’s too much with the wife. What if we put the dogs’ heads in? It should be the dogs’ heads.” Nope.

– Courtesy: GQ