BEVERLY HILLS – George Clooney professed solidarity with the marchers in Europe during his Cecil B. DeMille acceptance speech at tonight's Golden Globes – and backstage he expanded on those comments by speaking out against the “anti-Muslim fervor” that has broken out in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo massacre.
“Right now we're just all just trying to process,” he said of the tragedy. “And I hope that we don't overreact again. We have to be very careful of that too. There's a lot of anti-Muslim fervor in parts of Europe. And we have to make sure that this doesn't get [folded] into this horrible, horrible act of violence.”
Also on the subject, Clooney remained non-committal to the idea of contributing to an effort (suggested in an editorial today by heavyweight producer Harvey Weinstein) to establish a foundation in support of those affected by the massacre.
“You know, I would imagine that there will be a lot of worldwide outpouring for that,” he responded to a question about Weinstein's editorial (it was clearly the first he'd heard of it). “I'm not quite sure, I haven't thought about that yet. The [causes I've supported] were so overwhelmingly impossible…the tsunami. Those were such overwhelmingly poor people in desperate situations, but who knows?…Certainly, what we would hope is that people will…as you guys all know because you're journalists, this is a really important moment. It's an important moment in time. And we have to stand up together or we will [end up] falling apart.”
Though there were a couple of light-hearted moments during the Clooney Q&A (“I'm wearing my wedding tux,” he revealed to a chorus of “aaahs”), much of it focused on more serious topics like Charlie Hebdo and the Sony hacks – the latter of which had the actor on the defensive when one member of the press corps suggested he had attacked journalists over their coverage of the incident.
“I didn't attack reporters,” he said. “I did discuss the coverage that was going on because there were an awful lot of things going on, including the largest hacking in United States history and no one was writing about it…it was a joke. What they were really doing were little snippets of gossip, and I thought it was irresponsible. I also thought that it was irresponsible…I felt like everyone needed to join together like I just talked about…I felt like the studios, the MPAA, I think everybody…hopefully they'll improve the next time.”
On a less somber note, Clooney professed his admiration for hosts Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, whose joke about he and wife Amal during tonight's broadcast was one of the best zingers of the evening:
“I didn't even think that was a joke,” he said. “Listen, Tina and Amy kill me. I think they're the best hosts of the show. I'm sorry that they're not gonna do it again. I hope that these guys can talk them into it cause they are really, truly funny. Last year's 'Gravity' joke was the best joke. I'm gonna live my life, I gotta take those and laugh at it, and I thought it was really funny. And tonight I thought it was…hysterical.”