Ahead of his new Netflix film with Noah Baumbach, George Clooney declared he doesn’t “give a shit” if people say he’s always playing himself. Which is a good thing, because in this movie he’s playing a guy who’s accused of always playing himself. The Jay Kellytrailer is stacked with meta layers like this, as Jay worries that all his memories have become movies—or maybe all his memories are movies, having spent much of his life on set being a star and less of it being a person.
In the film, Jay Kelly is an aging movie star filled with regret as he begins to perceive the artifice of his Hollywood lifestyle. He tries to course correct by taking a “journey of self-discovery” like any old regular-degular man on the train. But Jay isn’t self aware enough to realize that no matter how lonely he feels, he’s never actually alone. Every time he wants to act on a whim, he’s indulged and facilitated by his team, including publicist Liz (Laura Dern) and manager Ron (Adam Sandler). “We did this together,” Ron tells him in the trailer. “I mean, you’re Jay Kelly, but I’m Jay Kelly too!”
The lines between Jay Kelly and George Clooney are definitely blurred—the image of him as the last great American movie star, the adulation of fans everywhere he goes (“When I look at you, I see my whole life!” says one man on the train). But Clooney has said a key difference between him and Jay is that Clooney didn’t become ultra-famous until his 30s, so he’s maybe a little better adjusted than his cinematic counterpart. “This is a story of him having to come to terms with other parts of his life besides the part that he’s been very successful at,” Clooney told Netflix’s Tudum. “He’s coming to terms with the idea that maybe he hasn’t been such a great friend or father. He has just been really good at being a movie star.” Jay Kelly opens in select theaters November 14 before premiering on Netflix December 5.
