George Clooney On Sony Hack Attack: Actor Throws Hollywood Under The Bus
George Clooney is not one to shy away from controversy and the Sony hack attack is no different. The leading man talked with Deadline and shared his thoughts on the devastating breach, throwing Hollywood under the bus in the process.
The 53-year-old is furious with his colleagues in Tinseltown for caving to the terrorist threats that followed the Sony hack attack. Initially, the breach was only about revealing emails that left the company’s head, Amy Pascal, and producer Scott Rudin red-faced.
The execs were caught exchanging racially insensitive comments about President Obama’s taste in movies and calling Angelina a “brat” among other very embarrassing things. As Sony tried to recover from the rippling effects of the attack, news that the hackers — identified by the FBI as being from North Korea — were threatening 9/11 type attack on movie theaters that chose to show the comedy The Interview surfaced.
In the end, the largest movie distributors in the nation, including AMC, dropped the film, which forced the studio to pull it from opening at any theater. Sony also stated there are no plans to show the movie On Demand, in VOD, or DVD in the future and Clooney isn’t happy, as he explained to Deadline.
“Here’s the brilliant thing they did. You embarrass them first, so that no one gets on your side. After the Obama joke, no one was going to get on the side of Amy, and so suddenly, everyone ran for the hills. Look, I can’t make an excuse for that joke, it is what it is, a terrible mistake. Having said that, it was used as a weapon of fear, not only for everyone to disassociate themselves from Amy but also to feel the fear themselves. They know what they themselves have written in their emails, and they’re afraid.”
George Clooney is not the only one who is upset about the way in which Sony handled the hack attack. Even though nobody signed the petition the actor was circulating in support of the studio, many celebrities have voiced their dissatisfaction as well and Clooney summed up the prevailing feelings.
Clooney — who owns his own production company now — says he has been in communications with embattled Sony head, Amy Pascal, since the studio was attacked by hackers and has been giving her advice.
“I just talked to Amy an hour ago. She wants to put that movie out. What do I do? My partner Grant Heslov and I had the conversation with her this morning. Bryan and I had the conversation with her last night. Stick it online. Do whatever you can to get this movie out. Not because everybody has to see the movie, but because I’m not going to be told we can’t see the movie. That’s the most important part. We cannot be told we can’t see something by Kim Jong-un, of all f***ing people.”
Read the exclusive interview, in which George Clooney discusses at length the events surrounding the Sony hack attack that brought the studio to its knees, at Deadline.
[Image via cinemafestival / Shutterstock.com]
