George Clooney has revealed why he chose to use footage of Elon Musk’s notorious salute in his new Broadway production of Good Night, and Good Luck.
The 63-year-old actor and director has adapted the 2005 historical drama film he directed and co-wrote for the stage, and is making his Broadway debut in the lead role of journalist Edward R. Murrow.
Near the end of the stage version, video footage is shown of former Fox host Megyn Kelly and of Musk’s controversial salute at an inauguration event for President Donald Trump.
Speaking to fellow actor Patti LuPone in a new interview for Variety, Clooney noted that Kelly had criticized him for not being a journalist, to which LuPone responded: “Neither is she.”
Clooney continued: “I’ve at least been to Darfur and Sudan and the Congo and been shot at to try to get stories out. I’m not quite sure what she’s done to be a journalist. Having said that, we only show her words in this play. We don’t tell people what to think. It’s not out of context. We don’t manipulate it. We literally just go, ‘These are your words.’
“Now, people can look at Elon Musk doing his move and go, ‘That’s a Roman salute.’ And maybe it is. We put it on a big screen, and we let you make your own decisions. Having said that, I will argue that when you retweet a statement that says that Hitler wasn’t responsible for the Holocaust — which he did — then maybe it is a Nazi salute. Maybe. “
Asked by LuPone whether he ever wonders about Musk’s relationship to Trump and whether it’s a threat to the government, Clooney responded: “Well, the president of the United States sent some nice tweets. It’s funny because he’s just a New York beast. We’ve all known him for 30 years, and he was just a guy chasing women. But whatever. It’s fine. We’re going to get through it.”
The new interview comes as Clooney recently told CNN that it was his “civic duty” to call on Joe Biden to drop out of the 2024 presidential race.
In July 2024, Clooney wrote a much-discussed op-ed for The New York Times encouraging Biden to step aside so that the Democrats could appoint a new nominee. Barack Obama reportedly received an advanced version of the article following Biden’s disastrous debate performance against Donald Trump.
During a conversation about Good Night and Good Luck — for which the actor dyed his hair, drawing bemused reactions from fans — CNN host Jake Tapper suggested that Clooney’s essay was “brave.”
The Ocean’s Eleven actor pushed back on that remark, saying: “I don’t know if it was brave. It was a civic duty.”
Clooney, who describes himself as a Kentucky Democrat, added that he “saw people on my side of the street not telling the truth, I thought that was time to.”
