George Clooney Disses Steve Bannon as ‘Failed F—ing Screenwriter’

TIFF 2017: “Suburbicon” star blasts former White House chief strategist at Toronto press conference

George Clooney Venice Film Festival
Getty Images

Politically interested actor George Clooney had some most unkind words for another high-profile American with ties to politics and showbiz at a Friday press conference at the Toronto International Film Festival: Former White House Chief Strategist and Breitbart News Executive Chairman Steve Bannon, who Clooney described as a “failed f—ing screenwriter.”

“I like picking fights,” Clooney said, according to Entertainment Weekly. “I like that Breitbart News wants to have my head. I’d be ashamed 10 years from now if those weaselly little putzes, whose voices are getting a lot higher every week as this presidency starts to look worse and worse weren’t still [after me]. Steve Bannon is a failed f—ing screenwriter, and if you’ve ever read [his] screenplay, it’s unbelievable. Now, if he’d somehow managed miraculously to get that thing produced, he’d still be in Hollywood, still making movies and licking my ass to get me to do one of his stupid-ass screenplays.”

Clooney was referring to Bannon’s previous work writing scripts, including a widely panned rap musical based on Shakespeare and the L.A. riots. The actor and director was in Toronto promoting the latest film he helmed, “Suburbicon,” a crime drama starring Matt Damon and Julianne Moore as a suburban couple who are victims of a home invasion. The Paramount film will hit theaters Oct. 27.

At the press conference, Clooney also took aim at “limousine liberal” critiques of Hollywood, pointing to his own everyman origin story.

“Hollywood is being quite well represented right now in the West Wing somehow,” Clooney said, mentioning President  Trump’s work in showbiz and treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin’s film producing career. “You know, they say I’m out of touch. You want to call me a Hollywood liberal? Come at me. I sold ladies shoes, I sold insurance door to door, I worked at an all-night liquor store, I cut tobacco for a living. I can change the fan belt on my car. I grew up in that world in Kentucky. I know every bit of that world, and I know my friends and what they believe. And I know this is not a moment in our history that we’ll look back and be proud of. So if I’m not standing on the side I believe to be right, I’d be ashamed.”

Comments