Hollywood star George Clooney joined Bollywood actor Anil Kapoor for a conversation about movies, work and million dollar paycheques on the final day of the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit 2022. At the event, George was asked if it was indeed true that he once turned down $35 million for just one day’s work. (Also read: HTLS 2022: George Clooney, CCJI Chandrachud, Boris Joghnson and more)
“Yeah, you know what, I had a conversation about it and the main conversation was if you’re gonna (going to) be paid… there is a reason why people want to pay a lot of money and usually it is to sort of whitewash. There were some amazing people, who were put in jail for saying something about women’s rights in Saudi Arabia. And these guys were taking money from these same people and, taking hundreds of millions of dollars to whitewash it. And I find that to be hard to do,” he said.
“And I find that when your employer is the person, who is also ruining the civil and human rights of the people, I find it hard to take that money, using my reputation to try and clean their own. I feel like my reputation is worth better than that. My wife (Amal Clooney) and I had a long conversation (about taking the money and putting it to use on a foundation), but there’s a price and for me that price isn’t my reputation. What my parents taught me to be really wasn’t for sale,” he added.
Last year, George had spoken about the same episode in an interview to The Guardian. “I was offered $35m for one day’s work for an airline commercial, but I talked to Amal about it and we decided it’s not worth it. It was [associated with] a country that, although it’s an ally, is questionable at times, and so I thought: ‘Well, if it takes a minute’s sleep away from me, it’s not worth it,” he had said.
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