George Clooney has broken his silence on Paramount’s proposed Warner Bros. acquisition, questioning whether the blockbuster merger makes financial sense and warning that consolidation could put Hollywood jobs at risk.
As he landed at the Venice Film Festival to receive a Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the opening ceremony on Wednesday, the Ocean Eleven star shared his views on the Paramount-Warner Bros. merger.
Clooney said, “The merger is a complicated thing because I don't know how it works out. I don't know how this goes through. There's so many issues involved.”
He added, “There's a great article that came out a couple of days ago about just the basics on how it works and how much money it's going to cost to make it work. And I don't know how that works, and it doesn't matter how much money you have. It's going to be very tricky to do.”
The ER star shared, “So my opinion on the merger is I always worry whenever big companies are consolidating because it usually means a lot of people lose their jobs. That's the truth. But we'll see.”
He noted that Hollywood is undergoing a major transformation, with AI expected to reshape the industry and create significant challenges.
Clooney mentioned, “If you're a visual effects supervisor, you're going to have trouble coming up because a lot of jobs are going to be taken away. Probably about 30% of the jobs, I don't know what the real number is, but there's going to be a big number of jobs that are going to be taken away. And we're kind of on our back foot on it.”
He said, “We're not taking the lead on it. People are just now starting to. So it's going to be a complicated time in our industry.”
“So we're going to have to find ways to survive. I'm not quite sure that the merger, I don't see how it financially ends up making sense for the people who are trying to do it. But we'll see,” Clooney said, before adding, “I'm always worried whenever one big company swallows up another big company. We've seen that a lot.”
On a lighter note, Clooney reflected on his long-standing love for Venice, a city that holds special significance as the place where he married Amal in 2014.
