George Clooney was honored with Film at Lincoln Center’s prestigious Chaplin Award in recognition of his Oscar-winning career as an actor, writer, director and producer.
But in recent years, Clooney has become as well known for his political views as he has been for his work behind and in front of the camera.
So it’s not surprising that in accepting the Chaplin Award in New York Monday, just days after the White House Correspondents’ Dinner shooting, Clooney felt the need to address recent political events.
“I can’t be here on a night like tonight and just ignore everything that’s going on in the world,” he said at the end of his remarks after he’d been honored by former colleagues such as Julianna Margulies, Sam Rockwell and John Turturro. “I disagree with everything that this administration stands for, but there’s no place for this kind of violence we saw two nights ago in Washington, D.C. Nor is there room for this kind of violence in Minnesota with Alex Pretti or Renée Nicole Good.”
Despite being an outspoken Donald Trump critic, Clooney didn’t mention the president by name and instead spoke more broadly against “hatred” and “cruelty.”
“It seems to me there’s a struggle that has to be won against hatred and corruption and cruelty and violence,” he said. “It’s a struggle for the very soul of this republic because to foment hate and violence is to inherit the wind.”
And he called for unity as he invoked Trump’s beloved “make America great again” slogan to push for a better future.
“The question is simply as citizens of this great country, what are we to do? And it is in that answer that all of us, left, right and center, can build a more perfect union, heal our wounds and begin to truly make America great again,” he said.
Clooney also quoted veteran journalist Edward R. Murrow, who he portrayed in the Broadway version of Good Night, and Good Luck, recalling how just last year he was playing Murrow and his words seemed “relevant” but now seem “urgent.”
“We will not walk in fear, one of another,” Clooney repeated. “We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason, if we dig deep in our history and our doctrine and remember that we are not descended from fearful men. Not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate and to defend the causes that were, for the moment, unpopular. We proclaim ourselves as indeed we are the defenders of freedom wherever it continues to exist in the world. But we cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home.”
Stephen Colbert, who also honored Clooney, the first guest on Colbert’s Late Show, which is set to air its final episode next month after being canceled by CBS, took a moment onstage to deliver a seemingly unscripted quip about Good Night, and Good Luck, which Clooney also wrote and directed the film version of, in which David Strathairn played Murrow.
“This inspiring film has now been seen by millions around the world and hopefully someday by CBS,” Colbert said before fumbling with the papers on his podium.