<\/p>\n
In \u201cJay Kelly,\u201d George Clooney plays a very George Clooney-esque movie star on a self-reflective journey through Europe. The film, which is premiering Thursday night at the Venice Film Festival<\/a>, explores heady questions about finding oneself while also poking fun at the business of being a major celebrity in the world and all the people on their payroll around them.<\/p>\n Hours before the premiere, Clooney was absent from the news conference<\/a> with his castmates due to a \u201cbad sinus infection,\u201d the moderator explained. Yet he rallied for the red carpet, bedecked in a classic tuxedo with his wife Amal by his side, looking the part of A-list movie star.<\/p>\n His co-star Laura Dern earlier praised his \u201camazing, raw, true performance\u201d in the film, which is in competition for the festival\u2019s top awards. <\/p>\n The meta-qualities of \u201cJay Kelly\u201d led to some self-reflection from the large ensemble cast, including Adam Sandler, who plays Jay\u2019s manager, Dern, who takes on the role of publicist, and Billy Crudup, as the most talented guy in his acting class who didn\u2019t make it big. <\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve always appreciated my manager, my agent, my publicist,\u201d Sandler said. \u201cI know how hard they work and how difficult it is to hear my ups and downs in life and back me up no matter what. \u2026 I could get loud at times.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cJay Kelly\u201d was directed by Noah Baumbach, who cowrote with actor Emily Mortimer. He’d always wanted to work with Clooney and when they’d hit on the idea for this film, his was the name that came to mind.<\/p>\n \u201cWe started to just say, \u2018this will be George,\u2019\u201d Baumbach said. \u201cWe all, watching it, have a history with George just like the people in the movie have a history with Jay.\u201d<\/p>\n Sandler said it was a gift to be working with Baumbach again, after they collaborated on the 2017 film \u201cThe Meyerowitz Stories.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI could not be more proud,\u201d Sandler said. \u201cYou lock in, you\u2019re invested, your heart gets broken, you get relief, you get moments of tension. He knows how to do everything and then he finds places to make you laugh.\u201d<\/p>\n Baumbach said Sandler is a very different breed of movie star from Jay Kelly, who has ostracized nearly everyone in his life from the people on his payroll to his family. He wanted Sandler’s character Ron to reflect that balance that he admires. <\/p>\n \u201cAdam really does have such grace and such loyalty and generosity and heart,\u201d Baumbach said. \u201cHe really has found a way to successfully sort of navigate this whole thing and do it so beautifully.\u201d<\/p>\n Baumbach was at the Venice Film Festival recently with his\u00a0Don DeLillo adaptation \u201cWhite Noise.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0Like \u201cWhite Noise,\u201d \u201cJay Kelly\u201d is a Netflix-produced film. After taking a year off from the festival, the streaming giant is back with three major films playing in competition, including\u00a0Guillermo del Toro\u2019s \u201cFrankenstein\u201d<\/a>\u00a0and Kathryn Bigelow\u2019s political thriller \u201cA House of Dynamite,\u201d debuting later in the festival.<\/p>\n