George Clooney is living a life that might be surprising to many.
The esteemed actor and director opened up about his life with his wife, Amal Clooney, and their seven-year-old twins, Alexander and Ella, in an interview with the New York Times.
They have homes in England and near his family in Kentucky, he told the publication, but their primary residence these days is a farm in France.
“Growing up in Kentucky, all I wanted to do was get away from a farm, get away from that life,” Clooney said. “Now I find myself back in that life. I drive a tractor and all those things. It’s the best chance of a normal life.”
Clooney as a farmer and it’s not for a role? It’s true, though people would be forgiven if they thought it was for a project.
After all, the New York Times story opens with an anecdote about Clooney smoking, not because he likes to, but for his upcoming Broadway debut as Edward R. Murrow in a stage adaptation of his 2005 movie, “Good Night, and Good Luck.”
“I had to get better at inhaling,” Clooney explained. “I go outside so the kids don’t see and smoke a little bit.”
It’s not something he enjoys given that within his extended family, “eight uncles and aunts all died of lung cancer — it’s a big deal.”
His aunt, singer and actress Rosemary Clooney, who died in 2002 at the age 74, was among his impacted loved ones.
The actor’s father, journalist Nick Clooney, bucked the trend.
“My dad’s the only one that didn’t smoke, and he’s 91,” the younger Clooney said.
Something the star has done recently that he did enjoy was bowling, though he said he had last bowled 30 years ago.
“Oh my God,” he said. “It’s an amazing thing, getting older, where you think you can still do stuff that you love.”
The 63-year-old said his twins help to keep him active and young.
“We’re riding in the car to school and I make them listen to heavy metal because I just like it when they sing. My daughter has fallen in love with tragic songs,” he said. “She loves Billie Eilish’s ‘What Was I Made For?’ and Harry Nilsson’s ‘Without You.’” But they’re happy kids, so I’m really lucky.”
