Despite the times we're in, George Clooney remains a man of hope. Here, John Byrne catches up with The Midnight Sky director/lead actor and co-star Felicity Jones as the post-apocalyptic sci-fi movie lands on Netflix
It might seem a bit inappropriate that Hollywood is producing dystopian movies at this time, given that we’re in a pandemic. It’s a bit of a buzz-kill when a bit of cheering-up might be what’s required at Christmastime. But it’s also giving us a bit of perspective. And maybe even a beacon of hope.
As bad as these Covid-19 days are, things could be a whole lot worse. And believing things can get better is as vital to life as a pulse.
Take George Clooney’s latest movie The Midnight Sky as a pretty good example. Or a pretty bad one, if you have any concerns for the future of the world and our much-maligned human race.
Here, things have really gone south for the mid-21st Century occupants of Earth. This sci-fi drama is set in the year 2049 in the wake of a cataclysmic event that has destroyed most of the planet.
It’s an adaptation of Lily Brooks-Dalton’s 2016 novel Good Morning, Midnight, and Clooney stars as Augustine Lofthouse, an elderly, terminally-ill scientist who could well be the last man still alive on what’s a dying planet.
"When we first started talking about the film, we wanted to talk about what Man is capable of doing to Man, and mankind," says the 59-year-old, who’s making his Netflix debut with this flick.
"And I talked to Netflix about my take on it. I was talking about all the anger and the hatred, and all of the things that have been playing out in our lives - not just in the United States, certainly in the United States - but all over the world.
"And how, if you play that out for 20 years, it’s not inconceivable that we could, one way or another, through denying science - if it’s climate, if it’s anger - we could be blowing our selves to kingdom come. It’s not inconceivable that we blow it in a big way.
"So to me, the idea was to have that conversation about what we’re capable of doing to ourselves."
Getting back to these pandemics times, and things we’re actually doing to ourselves, we’re in a reality where there’s many instances of The New Normal. This interview situation, for example.
Once upon a while ago, if George Clooney was promoting a film, lucky buggers like me would be flown to New York or Los Angeles to chinwag with him about his latest project. It’s a tough job etc. Or at least it used to be.
But in these lazy, hazy, crazy days of Covid, George is stuck wherever he is, I’m firmly rooted in Dublin, and we’re engaging on Zoom. Still, the wonders of modern technology at least enable to us be together, if in a rather nebulous fashion.
The up side is that neither George nor I have have to be too bothered about personal hygiene or the quality of room service as we’re at least 3,000 miles apart and both at home. I’m sitting in the box room in our house, watching George Clooney natter away on my laptop. I can think of many less engrossing ways to pass a pandemic evening.
His character in The Midnight Sky would certainly consider a Zoom meeting as something of a privilege. Clooney readily concedes that he was struck by the irony of the Covid-19 global outbreak arriving just as he was in his post-production pyjamas, putting the movie to bed.
"After we finished shooting, the pandemic came around, and it became clear that what the story really was enveloping was our desperate need to be home," he says. "And our desperate need to be close to the people we love, and to be in communication with the people we love, and near them, and how difficult that struggle is, to communicate with one another.
"That was the idea of it, and suddenly these themes were relative, and no one counted on them being relevant in such an unfortunate situation."
The Midnight Sky alternates between two situations. One being Clooney’s rather ill Lofthouse holed-up in an Arctic observatory trying to stay alive, with just a young girl (played by the very impressive Caoilinn Springall) for company. She somehow missed the last stagecoach outta Dodge when an Arctic refuge was being evacuated.
Meanwhile, there’s the oblivious crew of the Aether, a spaceship Lofthouse is desperately trying to make contact with as it returns to what’s left of Earth, after a successful two-year mission to a moon orbiting Jupiter.
The crew - which includes Felicity Jones as communications specialist Sully, as well as mission leader Ade (David Oyelowo), and pilot Mitchell (Kyle Chandler) - are blissfully unaware that their home planet is in rag order and increasingly unpopulated. Problem is they can’t make any contact with anyone back home.
"What I loved about the film and reading the script was that it had a macro level of being a film about some really huge, massive issues," says Jones, who is also in on this zoom call. She is presumably from her home in England, most likely on Tier 4 restrictions during this very peculiar Christmas, but certainly somewhere safer than a spacecraft heading for a post-apocalyptic Earth.
"It was asking existential questions, asking about the meaning of life, what are we doing here, why are we here, what do we value? And interestingly, these are all the questions we are asking ourselves in this strange epoch that we find ourselves in.
"And so it has these broader brushstrokes, but at the same time it has a very intimate relationship drama about trying to forge connection, and about being a family and being a parent.
"And so the fact that it moved from the big to the small, and did it so well, it’s probably the reason that I wanted to do it. And that it was an entertaining, propulsive action movie at the same time. But it has been extraordinary just how relevant it has become, obviously in this situation that we find ourselves in.
"We thought we were making entertainment, and now we’re making documentary."
That’s a point Clooney is keen to reflect on, especially given the way Jones’ real life collided with the filming of The Midnight Sky in a most remarkable, yet completely natural, way.
While he may have become an international superstar as hunky doc Doug Ross on the much-loved medical drama ER, before becoming a massive film star and director, Georgie boy also has great comedic skills.
If he didn’t exist, Clooney would definitely have been created as a character in a Coen brothers’ film, and sets up the situation - a dilemma in lesser hands - he faced as The Midnight Sky director, when Jones made a fateful phone call.
"There was an interesting thing that happened along the way," he explained, with that wicked grin of his that’s been used to great effect over the decades. "We were about three weeks into shooting in Iceland - and we shot all my stuff first - and then I get a call from Felicity and she says, ‘Oh, eh . . . there’s some news’. I go, ‘What is it?’ And she says, ‘I’m pregnant!’"
We all know the phrase ‘smiling like a Cheshire cat’, well the grin on George’s face is now causing a near lunar eclipse. He’s just about to twist his story and knows his audience is captive as he pauses for great effect.
"And I did it this way," he says of his response. "‘Congratulations! We’re very happy, we’re very excited for you.’ And then there was this long pause, and we go, ‘So what do you want to do?’ And she goes, ‘I want to do it! I want it!’"
Spoiler alert: she got it.
"Y’know, she got a trainer and she was going to work out on the wires . . . and we tried things," Clooney adds. "We tried to deny it. We tried to pretend that it didn’t happen, so we were shooting around her and we were shooting things three times.
"And then it really came down to the idea that the best versions of things are when you accept them, and you don’t see them as problems. And so, once we decided ‘People get pregnant. It happens.
"So suddenly it became Wilbur, who’s her actual son, and who - by the way - should actually get a screen credit - became a character to us. The crew of this ship, all of these five wonderful actors, joined together in protecting her. It became family. It became something that was important.
"And so we could write scenes about naming the kid, or doing the ultrasound with Tiffany, which I think is such a stunning scene. They’re waiting for any sound at all, any sign of life. And the only sign of life they’re getting is from inside Felicity."
For Clooney, Jones’s pregnancy became a significant addition to the film’s storyline, and an indication that there’s a good reason why, even in humanity’s darkest moments, the human race - life itself - is always something to cherish.
"To me, it suddenly became infinitely more hopeful. And there was a real fight for the idea of whether or not this whole ‘thing’ of mankind is worth the struggle. And you feel as if, when you see that, it is worth the struggle.
"By the way, if you finish the film without the last five minutes, it’s a film, in many ways, about regret. Because of the character that I play. But he gets redemption. And I think that redemption is a really big important thing that washes over us and gives us hope.
"I found it to be a very hopeful film," he adds, in conclusion. "We all felt like Felicity and all she was going through was all of our responsibilities as well.
"We wanted to make sure she was okay, and everybody was alright. It drew everybody together in a way that I think also made it feel very hopeful."
The Midnight Sky is available to view on Netflix from December 23
