Actor and director George Clooney has revealed the simple, but profound, piece of advice he received from the late cinema legend Paul Newman that fundamentally changed how he approaches fame.
In a recent interview, Clooney recalled a brief encounter in the late 1990s, when he was starring in ER and Newman was filming Message in a Bottle on the Warner Bros. lot. After Newman observed the constant attention Clooney received, he offered the crucial insight:
“He goes, ‘George, don’t let them keep you at home.’”
Clooney explained that the advice resonated immediately because he often isolated himself to try and hold onto some privacy. Newman was warning him against the tendency for successful actors to withdraw from public life due to the overwhelming demands of celebrity. The lesson, given word-for-word, helped Clooney navigate his sudden rise to stardom and remains a guiding principle today.
