George Clooney once had the chance to make $35 million for a single day of work. His response? Thanks, but no thanks.
The Oscar-winning actor revealed in an interview with The Guardian he was offered a $35 million payday "for one day's work for an airline commercial," but he discussed the opportunity with his wife, Amal Clooney, and decided to turn it down.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Clooney offered the anecdote after the interviewer bluntly asked if he ever thinks to himself, "You know what? I think I have enough money now." This was apparently an accurate assessment, as the actor responded, "Well, yeah." Clooney, who the website Celebrity Net Worth claims is worth around $500 million, previously revealed to GQ that he once gave 14 of his closest friends $1 million each in cash after making quite a bit of money for his 2013 film Gravity.
"I thought, you know, without them I don't have any of this," Clooney told GQ. "And we're all really close, and I just thought basically if I get hit by a bus, they're all in the will. So why the f--- am I waiting to get hit by a bus?"
Clooney and The Guardian also discussed his new Ben Affleck film The Tender Bar, describing it as "such a kind story" that he wanted to direct especially because "the whole country, for the last five years, has been engaged in hate and anger, and I've been part of it at times. ... and I thought maybe an audience would want to be part of a gentle experience."
-
September 14 editorial cartoonsCartoons Sunday’s political cartoons include RFK Jr on the hook, the destruction of discourse, and more
-
Air strikes in the Caribbean: Trump’s murky narco-warTalking Point Drug cartels ‘don’t follow Marquess of Queensberry Rules’, but US military air strikes on speedboats rely on strained interpretation of ‘invasion’
-
Crossword: September 14, 2025The Week's daily crossword puzzle
-
Florida erases rainbow crosswalk at Pulse nightclubSpeed Read The colorful crosswalk was outside the former LGBTQ nightclub where 49 people were killed in a 2016 shooting
-
Trump says Smithsonian too focused on slavery's illsSpeed Read The president would prefer the museum to highlight 'success,' 'brightness' and 'the future'
-
Trump to host Kennedy Honors for Kiss, StalloneSpeed Read Actor Sylvester Stallone and the glam-rock band Kiss were among those named as this year's inductees
-
White House seeks to bend Smithsonian to Trump's viewSpeed Read The Smithsonian Institution's 21 museums are under review to ensure their content aligns with the president's interpretation of American history
-
Charlamagne Tha God irks Trump with Epstein talkSpeed Read The radio host said the Jeffrey Epstein scandal could help 'traditional conservatives' take back the Republican Party
-
CBS cancels Colbert's 'Late Show'Speed Read 'The Late Show with Stephen Colbert' is ending next year
-
Shakespeare not an absent spouse, study proposesspeed read A letter fragment suggests that the Shakespeares lived together all along, says scholar Matthew Steggle
-
New Mexico to investigate death of Gene Hackman, wifespeed read The Oscar-winning actor and his wife Betsy Arakawa were found dead in their home with no signs of foul play
