The Real Reason George Clooney Stopped Kissing His Movie Co-Stars

George Clooney was born on May 6, 1961. In 2026, he will turn 65. Clooney, the current platonic ideal of a Hollywood movie star and a legitimate Oscar darling, still has many years of fame ahead of him; however, his age isn't much of a factor in the current state of his career. Clooney just starred in Noah Baumbach's showbiz drama "Jay Kelly," wherein he plays a very George Clooney-like film actor who finds that his fame and wealth have weirdly isolated him from his daughters and from the rest of the world. Jay Kelly isn't a horrid man, but he is haunted by his many selfish life decisions. Clooney gives a great performance, and Baumbach squeezes the story of every ounce of melancholy. One can see "Jay Kelly" as a fictionalized version of Clooney himself; the man is clearly trying to communicate that, even though he is a rich movie star, he has regrets. 

Clooney seems to be painfully aware of his own self-image. That, or he has a team of dedicated publicists and assistants who tell him constantly how the public perceives him. Either way, Clooney seems to be watching his own ego like a hawk, careful not to let it grow too large, or for hubris and pride to infect his career decisions. Clooney is an in-demand star and could likely take on just about any project he likes. But not all jobs would necessarily be right for his talents, or good for his image. 

Case in point: Clooney declared recently to the Daily Mail that he no longer kisses his co-stars on camera anymore. The reason? He doesn't think that he, a married man of 64, should be playing dashing romantic leads anymore. Also, he's married, and his wife doesn't like it.

Clooney did want to stress that 64 is by no means an infirm age. Indeed, he said he was in very good health and was physically quite fit. But there was something kind of unseemly, he felt, about being a man in his mid-60s picking up women and instigating romances. Also, his wife, Amal, whom he married in 2014, seems uncomfortable with Clooney actively seeking roles that make him out to be a single man who is hot-to-trot. Clooney figured this was logical and that he could look to a previous generation of movie stars for guidance. As he said: 

"I've been trying to go the route Paul Newman did: 'Okay, well, I'm not kissing a girl anymore.' [...] When I turned 60, I had a conversation with my wife. I said, 'Look, I can still play basketball with the boys. I play with 25-year-old guys.' I can still hang, I'm in shape. But in 25 years, I'm 85 years old. It doesn't matter how many granola bars you eat, that's a real number."

And so the kissing part of his career has ended. What's more, Clooney once said in a New York Times interview (also alluded to by the Daily Mail) that he has long been uncomfortable with kissing scenes in movies after a traumatic film shoot. It seems that Clooney, early in his career, had a kissing scene that his director criticized. Clooney recalled that he was kissing his co-star the same way he might in real life, and was shocked to learn that it looked terrible. 

After that, Clooney was self-conscious about his kissing acumen; one might note that his smooches with stars like Julia Roberts or Michelle Pfeiffer tend to be very chaste.