How George Clooney and Julia Roberts Became Tracy and Hepburn of Our Era

The New York Times

They don’t share the screen until 49 minutes into their first movie together, and the conversation isn’t friendly. She’s expecting her boyfriend, but the hand touching her shoulder belongs to her ex-husband, and the first words she says to him (“what are you doing here?”) come loaded with a mixture of shock and residual anger. Irritation does not take long to surface; there’s fire in her eyes, enough to dampen the sparkle in his eyes. “You’re not wearing the ring,” he observes.

“I sold it,” she counters fiercely. “I don’t have a husband, or have you not received the papers?”

“On my last day in prison,” he retorts.

“Yeah, I said I would.”

Julia Roberts and George Clooney’s first scene together in Steven Soderbergh’s 2001 remake of “The 11 Men’s Eleven” lasts less than five minutes in total, but is filled with barbs and pronouncements, insults and sarcastic reminiscences. of old arguments and (for him at least) flashes of homesickness. Tess (Roberts) is the reason Danny Ocean (Clooney) assembled the film’s title team to rob three luxury Las Vegas casinos — all of which are owned by Terry Benedict (Andy Garcia), her current boyfriend. from Tess. (When Danny is introduced to Terry, he nervously fiddles with his ring, perhaps absentmindedly, perhaps deliberately.) The profit from the operation is immense, but it matters little to Danny; as he tells his ex-wife in that first peevish conversation, “I’m here for you.” So Danny and Tess, and therefore Clooney and Roberts, need to generate enough heat and chemistry, under the rough surface of their dialogue, to justify everything else that happens in the film. It’s a complicated request. But the two perform the task effortlessly.

“Our scenes are really fun,” Clooney explained at the time, “because they’re like an old Howard Hawks movie, with the two of them attacking each other mercilessly and neither of them coming out on top. And that’s exactly how it should be.” Roberts agreed with the assessment. “It’s very sharp and demanding dialogue, like a movie from the 1940s.”

These references to Hollywood’s past don’t come by accident. For years, Clooney has been described as one of the last old-school movie stars. As Tom Carson put it in GQ magazine in 2007, “he is sly, virile, cheerful, and the camera loves him with the devotion of a waiter rushing to a table to light a billionaire’s cigar.”

Roberts, with his million-dollar smile, husky voice and long red hair, is also reminiscent of the stars of the big movie studio era. Writer-director Richard Curtis told Vanity Fair that he based Roberts’ character in “A Place Called Notting Hill” on Grace Kelly and Audrey Hepburn, “neither of whom were available for the role”. That Roberts was able to fill a role designed for stars of such brilliance is testament to his power of charm, which seems to come from another era.

Because they both have that gleam of movie stars of the past, the way their periodic collaborations complement their stellar solo careers, and the affectionate relationship that exists between the two off-screen, it’s very clear that Clooney and Roberts have quietly become the Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn of our era. And the distinct mix of smothered sexual attraction and passing exasperation that Hepburn and Tracy explored in “The Absolute Woman” (1952) and “The Woman of the Day” (1942), and which makes Clooney and Roberts’ scenes in “The Eleven and a Secret” so electric, is back in full force in their new work together, “Entrance to Paradise”.

They go back to playing a divorced couple, though this time not as recently as Danny and Tess. David (Clooney) and Georgia (Roberts) split after five years of marriage, but stayed in touch because they needed to care for their daughter, Lily (Kaitlyn Dever), now an adult; it gave them all the time in the world to sharpen their grievances and perfect their double passive aggression performance. For example, David, expressing doubts about his daughter’s plans to travel after graduate school, appeals to Georgia, “Just this once, you could take my side.” She doesn’t even hesitate before replying, “Yeah, I could, but if I did that I would be wrong too.”

Of course, this is a big-budget romantic comedy, so the ice between them will start to show cracks, and eventually melt. The joy of “A Ticket to Heaven” doesn’t come from its predictable plot or nearly invisible script; comes from seeing them together, from watching the sparks still fly, and (when the two former lovers get drunk and let their guard down, or during the cut scenes accompanying the final signs), witnessing the impromptu moments when the two make themselves laugh. The pleasure they feel in each other’s company, both in their roles and out of them, is contagious.

This playful side is also present in their off-screen relationship. While not as romantic as Hepburn and Tracy’s, it also captured the attention of the public and the film press. The two exchange playful praise and insults, in interviews and at public events, a tradition that dates back to even before the release of their first film. At a dinner in honor of Roberts in March 2001, Clooney described her friend as “a confidant—someone I can call day and night, and know that she’s going to ask the assistant to return the call.” In return, Roberts easily deflates Clooney’s persona as a kind of modern-day Clark Gable, defining him as “a great guy, wonderful, but kind of goofy. The fact that he manages to hide it when the camera is rolling is one of his tricks.” funnier. On camera, he becomes very charming and smooth, when in reality that’s not who he is.”

They worked together again, and quickly—in the year after “Men’s Eleven,” Roberts would star in “Confessions of a Dangerous Mind,” Clooney’s first film as a director, although the two did not have scenes together. And yet, by casting Roberts as a cold-hearted femme fatale, a role very different from her usual role as America’s sweetheart, Clooney helped her play one of her most complicated and elusive characters.

They were reunited on screen in “Twelve Men and Another Secret” two more years later. Danny and Tess are remarried and enjoying the bliss of home in Connecticut (although the first scene he appears in shows him sizing up a local jewelry store and bank as targets, always looking for the thrill of crime), before he travels to the abroad with the old gang. But this time she participates in the plot (which explains the “Twelve” in the title), creating a scene in a museum to distract the security guards, taking advantage of her resemblance to… Julia Roberts.

The screen time they have together again is limited to a few short scenes, but when he puts his handcuffed arms around her neck to kiss her and ask for forgiveness, eliciting the actress’s trademark wide smile, the fireworks are deafening.

Their next collaboration, in the dramatic thriller “Money Game” (2016), was more a show of collegiality than romance. Clooney is a Jim Cramer-style TV financial journalist, and Roberts is his venerable director; their dialogue revolves around work, and the two share the jargon, shorthand and good-natured exchange of insults that characterize two people who have worked (and only worked) together for a long time. Conventional dialogues between them are few; most of the film, in which a gunman takes Clooney hostage during a live show, shows Roberts relaying instructions and recommendations to him over his headset. But the film ends with Clooney kissing Roberts on the top of the head, a friendly gesture of respect and affection.

The genuine tenderness that exists between them, and that sustains even their most tense interactions, is, after all, what makes their joint work memorable. When the inevitable moment of crossing the Rubicon of the novel arrives, in “A Ticket to Paradise”, the script’s machinery and the far-fetched nature of the moment don’t matter – the two are able to simply exchange a glance and express the feeling that exists between their characters. We’re not just seeing two great-looking people exchanging loving glances. As longtime viewers, we are bringing our own fond memories and pop culture connotations to that interaction.

What shapes the entire film is the simple idea of ​​George Clooney and Julia Roberts together, and everything they represent: glamour, beauty, mischief and the unchanging delight we share in seeing them.