America’s heartthrob is officially retiring his charms.

George Clooney declares he won’t be ‘kissing a girl anymore’ onscreen

America's heartthrob is officially retiring his charms.

By Ryan Coleman

Ryan Coleman

Ryan Coleman is a news writer for with previous work in MUBI Notebook, Slant, and the LA Review of Books.

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December 15, 2025 11:00 a.m. ET

George Clooney and Amal Clooney in Cannes in 2016. Credit:

Clemens Bilan/Getty

- George Clooney says he's taking a step back from romantic leading man roles.

- "I've been trying to go the route Paul Newman did: 'Okay, well, I'm not kissing a girl anymore,'" he told *The Daily Mail *on Friday.

- The remarks echo Clooney's previous comments on the matter from March, in which he told *60 Minutes*, "Look, I'm 63 years old. I’m not trying to compete with 25-year-old leading men... I'm not doing romantic films anymore."

A collective sigh of relief could just be heard from Hollywood's aspiring leading men: George Clooney is hanging up his hat as a romantic lead.

In a new interview with *The Daily Mail*, the eternal A-lister announced that he'll no longer be kissing the actresses he's paired opposite with — after a career spent selling films on his romantic chemistry with said actresses.

"I've been trying to go the route Paul Newman did: 'Okay, well, I'm not kissing a girl anymore,'" he explained. "When I turned 60, I had a conversation with my wife. I said, 'Look, I can still play basketball with the boys. I play with 25-year-old guys... I can still hang, I'm in shape. But in 25 years, I'm 85 years old. It doesn't matter how many granola bars you eat, that's a real number.'"

George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez in 'Out of Sight'.

Moviestore/Shutterstock

These aren't isolated comments. Since Clooney first embarked on the press tour for Noah Baumbach's latest, *Jay Kelly*, in which he plays the central aging Hollywood legend in a bit of winking meta-fictionalism, Clooney has been expanding upon his desire to step out of the romantic mold in which he's been cast throughout his career.

"Look, I'm 63 years old. I’m not trying to compete with 25-year-old leading men," he told *60 Minutes *journalist Jon Wertheim in March. "That's not my job. I'm not doing romantic films anymore." And earlier this month, he told Netflix, the studio behind *Jay Kelly*, that his career priorities are shifting as he ages. "We always look back as we get older and go, 'I wish I'd spent more time with the family.' You never go, 'I wish I spent more time working' — unless you have a really crappy family."

How casting George Clooney helped 'Jay Kelly' take shape

Behind the most iconic kisses in romantic comedies

The Kentucky-born actor's big break came in 1994, when he was cast in the lead role of Dr. Doug Ross on the NBC medical procedural *ER*. That series also represented the first of his many storied on-screen pairings with an actress of equal stature — in that case, Julianna Margulies, who played his on-again-off-again love, nurse Carol Hathaway.

Roles followed in films made iconic in large part due to the undeniable chemistry between Clooney and his topline costars, such as *Out of Sight *(Jennifer Lopez), *Up in the Air* (Vera Farmiga), and *Ocean's Eleven *(Julia Roberts).

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Clooney has been married to human rights lawyer Amal Alamuddin, now Amal Clooney, since 2014. The couple shares twins Alexander and Ella, whom they welcomed in 2017.

In a recent interview on Travis and Jason Kelce's* New Heights *podcast, Clooney humorously observed how the twins' nascent teenage disaffection is keeping his A-list ego in check. "It's coming, man. And I'm telling you, dude, it's like, even at [8 years old], I've got, like, my daughter rolling her eyes now, which is a new thing," he joked. "Like, I'd say, like, 'Hey, you know, your dad's a big star,' and she just rolls her eyes."

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