George Clooney reveals the unexpected reason he got ‘barely-walking drunk’ following loss

George Clooney may seem like a cool, calm and collected family man, but even the father of two likes to let loose now and then. The star revealed in an interview with Esquire that after losing the award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play at the 2025 Tonys in June, he got incredibly drunk for the first time in years. “I got blasted. Barely-walking drunk, you know? Came home with [my wife] Amal, and I was just laughing,” he recalled.

George had been abstaining from alcohol for six months while starring in the acclaimed play Good Night, and Good Luck on Broadway, aside from a glass of wine on Sunday nights. He portrayed journalist Edward R. Murrow in the show, which is a stage adaptation of the 2005 film of the same name that George also co-wrote and starred in. 

He continued to share the details of his drunken night out, after imbibing at the Tony Awards afterparty. “[Amal and I are] lying in bed, and I go, ‘Well, I caught up for all my abstinence in one night.’ I was sick all day the next day; it was hysterical,” he laughed. “I was like high school drunk. Like [expletive] drunk.”

George added that while he liked a drink, there were times when his relationship with alcohol changed. “I’ve had periods where, I wouldn’t say it was a problem – I never woke up and drank or anything. But I’d have runs where I’d get pretty toasty every night,” he said. The Jay Kelly actor also admitted to dabbling in drugs in the past, like cocaine and marijuana.

To learn more about George’s two children, watch below…

“[In 1982], I tried – I did blow and stuff. I used to make jokes about how I did too many drugs, but the truth is, it was never a big issue for me at all,” he shared. “And look, there was an episode of Taxi where they’re all doing blow. At the time, it was like, ‘No, this is not like heroin. It’s not addictive. But then it was like, ‘Oh, well, it’s actually pretty [expletive] bad.'”

The 64-year-old recalled trying marijuana with a group of his friends “about 15 years ago” while they watched The Wizard of Oz. “We were [expletive]. I think all of us – there was like 20 of us in the screening room, and the movie ended, and we sat there without speaking for, like, hours. Hours!… It’s just not my drug.”

© Erik Pendzich/Shutterstock

George revealed that he got roaring drunk after the Tony Awards

George is a proud father to eight-year-old twins Alexander and Ella, and an adoring husband to human rights lawyer Amal Clooney, whom he wed in 2014. Yet before he settled down with his family, the A-lister drank more frequently, and recalled turning up drunk on set while filming the 1996 film One Fine Day with Michelle Pfeiffer. “I woke up at five in the morning. I was like, ‘I feel okay.’ Then I looked in the mirror, and I was like, ‘Oh, I’m still drunk,'” he reminisced with Michelle in an interview with Variety. 

© Bruce Glikas/FilmMagic

He was nominated for a Tony for Good Night, and Good Luck

“I got to the set, and we walked to the trailer, and I sat down, and you looked at me. You go, ‘What?’ And I was like, ‘I didn’t know we were going to work today.’ And you go, ‘You’re still drunk.'” George added that he got through their scene by spraying Listerine in his mouth, as he smelled “like a brewery.”