VENICE, Italy (AP) — In “Jay Kelly,” George Clooney plays a very George Clooney-esque movie star on a self-reflective journey through Europe. The film, which is premiering Thursday night at the Venice Film Festival, explores heady questions about finding oneself while also poking fun at the business of being a major celebrity in the world and all the people on their payroll around them.
But hours before the premiere, Clooney was absent from the news conference with his castmates due to a “bad sinus infection,” the moderator explained. He still hopes to make the red carpet later.
His co-star Laura Dern said it was especially sad that he wasn’t there because of his “amazing, raw, true performance” in the film, which is in competition for the festival’s top awards.
The meta-qualities of “Jay Kelly” led to some self-reflection from the large ensemble cast, including Adam Sandler, who plays Jay’s manager, Dern, who takes on the role of publicist, and Billy Crudup, as the most talented guy in his acting class who didn’t make it big.
“I’ve always appreciated my manager, my agent, my publicist,” Sandler said. “I know how hard they work and how difficult it is to hear my ups and downs in life and back me up no matter what. … I could get loud at times.”
“Jay Kelly” was directed by Noah Baumbach, who cowrote with actor Emily Mortimer. He'd always wanted to work with Clooney and when they'd hit on the idea for this film, his was the name that came to mind.
“We started to just say, ‘this will be George,’” Baumbach said. “We all, watching it, have a history with George just like the people in the movie have a history with Jay.”
Sandler said it was a gift to be working with Baumbach again, after they collaborated on the 2017 film “The Meyerowitz Stories.”
“I could not be more proud,” Sandler said. “You lock in, you’re invested, your heart gets broken, you get relief, you get moments of tension. He knows how to do everything and then he finds places to make you laugh.”
Baumbach said Sandler is a very different breed of movie star from Jay Kelly, who has ostracized nearly everyone in his life from the people on his payroll to his family. He wanted Sandler's character Ron to reflect that balance that he admires.
“Adam really does have such grace and such loyalty and generosity and heart,” Baumbach said. “He really has found a way to successfully sort of navigate this whole thing and do it so beautifully.”
Baumbach was at the Venice Film Festival recently with his Don DeLillo adaptation “White Noise.” Like “White Noise,” “Jay Kelly” is a Netflix-produced film. After taking a year off from the festival, the streaming giant is back with three major films playing in competition, including Guillermo del Toro’s “Frankenstein” and Kathryn Bigelow’s political thriller “A House of Dynamite,” debuting later in the festival.
The 82nd edition of the festival kicked off Wednesday on the Lido, the barrier island that hosts the Venice Film Festival. It runs through Sept. 6. Thursday's festival is also hosting the premiere of the latest Yorgos Lanthimos and Emma Stone collaboration, “Bugonia.”
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Lindsey Bahr, The Associated Press
