t get those same kinds of moments of luck. You're born in a war zone. You're born in a place of hunger. You're born in a place where women are treated terribly, or journalists are imprisoned, and those people need some luck. And so our job is to be part of that solution. 

He said he worked on bringing attention to the 2003 genocide in Darfur, Sudan, and  that he tried to make it very loud for a long time. […] And then, 20 years later, my wife finally puts some of these guys on trial and gets them thrown in jail,  he said about Clooney's success as a lawyer.  By the way, my wife's the only person to have ever put ISIS on trial and won. She's a badass, and she gets the job done,  he told the room, earning thunderous applause.  We do it for our families. We do it for our friends. 

He added that he braces against people saying  shut up  to actors talking out about human rights and political issues.  I didn't give away my freedom of speech the minute I became an actor. It also means that people can get mad at you and not like you anymore. Fair enough. That's how this works. You can't demand freedom of speech and then say,  But don't say bad shit about me.' Right? That's the deal.  Clooney added:  I get mean tweets from the President of the United States. That's okay. I can handle it. I'll do all right. I'll be fine. But that's part of life. 

Clooney was given the opportunity to gush even more about his partner, with whom he shares nine-year-old twins, when an attendee asked if her background as a legal bigwig ever weighs in on his taking roles.  No, I don't think so,  he said.  She reads the scripts before I'll do them, but she doesn't have any real take on that. Obviously, if there was something that was going to be demeaning to someone, I wasn't probably going to do it. It's not really who I am. I'm perfectly happy to play the bad guy and do that if that's to point out a flaw. 

But he and Amal  have a lot of really interesting discussions,  he continued.  I remember when this young woman who was a victim of ISIS came to the house, [Iraqi human rights activist] Nadia Murad. We were in England, and Amal's got a million cases going, and she said,  Do not let me take this case. I've got too much going on.' I go,  I got it.' And she went into the living room to talk to Nadia, and about four hours later, I came in and they were both sitting on the floor crying, and I said,  You're taking the case,' and she said,  Yeah.' And it's been 10 years of representing her, and Nadia eventually won the Nobel Peace Prize for [her work]. 

Added Clooney:  Amal's taken some very difficult stands over the years, and we've had to face some pretty heavy criticism based on that. I wrote an op-ed about President Joe Biden. I got some shit from that,  he said, saying that neither of them are afraid of backlash.  We have really interesting conversations around the table. But you know, we also have two nine-year-old kids, and we have a normal family life, and there's a lot of laughing and a lot of love, and we're very lucky, and we're really aware of that. 

Clooney delighted the crowd across the entire masterclass, speaking about the different approaches of Meryl Streep ( she knew all the lines before the table reading ) and Julia Roberts ( she'd pick up the script, and go,  Oh, okay,' ) who both earned an Oscar nomination for the same film (Clooney served as a producer on it, 2013's August: Osage County).

He was also asked about being one of Hollywood's last movie stars, and Clooney swiftly brought up two of his idols and good friends, Gregory Peck and Paul Newman.  Movie stars were bigger than life at the time,  said Clooney.  They are absolutely inspirations to me, but we're very different beasts now. The kinds of stars that exist now aren't the same [and] aren't at the same height. I strive to do the best work I can. 

In a feel-good end to the session, an aspiring actress and filmmaker stood up to shoot her shot and ask Clooney if she could use any of his contacts to get a foot in the door of the industry.  My partner Grant is here - not here today - but he's here in Venice with me, and we'll [get] your information. We're going to shoot some stuff in Venice starting next year,  he told her,  so that might be something you'd be available for.  The room awarded his kindness with raucuous applause.

The 2026 Venice Film Festival runs Sep. 2-12.