George Clooney’s Jay Kelly is a film star within the twilight of his profession, however the star-studded solid all approached their experiences with fame otherwise than him. Helmed by four-time Oscar nominee Noah Baumbach on a script he co-wrote with Emily Mortimer, who additionally co-stars within the movie, the film sees Kelly and his longtime supervisor Ron reminiscing on their careers and a few of the selections they’ve made to higher their stardom, which additionally led to some private turmoil.
Alongside Clooney, the ensemble Jay Kelly solid consists of Adam Sandler as Ron, Laura Dern, Billy Crudup, Riley Keough, Grace Edwards, Patrick Wilson and Greta Gerwig, amongst many others. Having made its world premiere at 2025’s Venice Worldwide Movie Competition, the place it was nominated for the Golden Lion, the film has been touted as considered one of Netflix’s massive Oscars contenders, notably for the Finest Image, Finest Authentic Screenplay and Finest Supporting Actor classes, the latter for Sandler.
Now, because the film involves Netflix, ScreenRant‘s Ash Crossan interviewed George Clooney, Adam Sandler, Laura Dern, Emily Mortimer and Patrick Wilson to debate Jay Kelly. Throughout the conversations, the group have been requested how they really feel they’ve dealt with fame of their private lives in comparison with Clooney’s titular character. Sandler described that the movie sees “Jay Kelly making an attempt to hook up with his regular life“ and feeling that the week the film is about in has him “take a whole lot of constructive steps,” to which Dern agreed that “he is catching up” and is “wanting to seek out his method to his daughters.”
Sandler, in flip, opined that Dern does not understand she’s well-known in actual life, as she “simply walks round like nobody’s going to cease her and say hey,” just for her to present “everyone a holy cow second” after they strategy her as “she’s crammed with nice power for everybody.” The Oscar winner equally identified Sandler’s down-to-earth persona, notably highlighting his devotion to his household:
Laura Dern: And Adam? There isn’t any place that he’s not actually carrying his kids, his spouse, his household with him in all places he goes in his coronary heart and in his expertise. All of us went on a trip, and all the baggage needed to be introduced down. Somebody was kindly making an attempt to assist us navigate like big suitcases, and I simply see [Adam] carrying everybody’s crap. His daughters’, my daughter’s, my crap, your spouse’s crap…
Adam Sandler: That is solely as a result of I wished to get to the lodge.
Laura Dern: This can be a man who seems out for each single considered one of us on the planet always. So, Jay Kelly might be taught.
Adam Sandler: Yeah, perhaps he ought to sit again and watch that. Be taught from the Dern.
Sandler went on to specific that “we form of simply do [our thing]” relating to their regular lives, whether or not it is his varied pick-up basketball video games, or working to the grocery retailer. Although tlisted below are instances “you run into a little bit one thing for fame creates a little bit pleasure for a second,” the comic says that usually “goes away” and so they’re in a position to proceed “dwelling a traditional life.”
Dern echoed a lot of Sandler’s phrases as she praised Baumbach and Mortimer for the “lovely” manner Jay Kelly explores the concept “we’re all hooked up to the iconography of somebody we admire,” however acknowledges that stated individuals are “desperately making an attempt to navigate how we may be on this life with the individuals we love and never miss it.” Warmly sharing she feels “actually privileged” and “so grateful” to be a part of the movie, Dern highlighted this core as making it “such an vital movie.”
As for Clooney, he started by quipping that he is “not surrounded by a giant posse of safety” in the way in which that Jay Kelly is. Furthermore, he additionally explains that he “got here to fame a lot later” than his character, which he feels left him in “higher form” to deal with an increase to stardom than “younger actors who’re 18 years previous and hit it massive“:
George Clooney: I actually would not have dealt with it very properly. It is simpler if you’re 33, and you’ve got failed rather a lot! I feel Jay is a personality who’s lived inside this bubble. Which is humorous, I do know individuals would assume that is how I reside, however I do not. I’ve nice buddies, and I’ve an important household. My father and I are nonetheless shut. All these parts that are not who I’m are what Jay is.
In a whole distinction to Clooney’s character, Wilson expressed that he does not “know if I ever felt” a pop of stardom in his profession, together with his focus being “much less about me and extra the ability of flicks.” The Emmy and Golden Globe nominee went on to recall a singular second wherein he was “on an island in Crete, on a seashore the place nobody speaks English” and located himself approached by a Russian man yelling “Lynch!“.
As he defined, the person “had seen The A-Crew in some little village” he was from, which helped Wilson come to understand “films attain in all places,” and gave him the vital reminder a few film’s attain extra so than his personal fame. He additionally shared a lesson he realized from The Phantom of the Opera‘s Joel Schumacher, wherein the filmmaker informed him to do worldwide press for it, to not “increase [your] stardom,” however as a substitute to “perceive how small the world is and the way far films journey.”
For Mortimer — who’s making her characteristic screenwriting debut after having created and starred within the equally meta Doll & Em and written and directed the three-part adaptation of The Pursuit of Love — she started by recalling Baumbach approaching her with “the obscure thought” of what Jay Kelly could be. As she remembers, the Oscar nominee “wished to make a movie a few film star who was barely shedding his thoughts,” to which her preliminary response was “I would prefer to see that movie” and inspired Baumbach to jot down and direct it.
She was subsequently shocked when his response was, “perhaps it’s best to write it with me,” initially considering Baumbach was probably joking about desirous to collaborate on it collectively, just for him to guarantee her he was severe. Describing it as “one of the crucial thrilling and joyful experiences of my skilled life,” Mortimer went on to elucidate that there are “so many issues immediately out of my and Noah’s separate lives” within the movie’s exploration of stardom and the leisure business, in addition to “our understanding of what it’s to be doing this very vocational job“:
Emily Mortimer: I feel anybody — it does not matter what occupation they’re in — who has a job that they really feel passionately about, goes by the identical battle of feelings over the issues that it’s a must to generally sacrifice or neglect with a view to dedicate your self to this factor that you simply like to do. You consider how onerous that may be, and what a toll it may well take. I feel we had that joint expertise in frequent.
A giant level of similarity Mortimer discovered between herself and Jay Kelly was that she was “going by a second the place I used to be on the cusp of empty nest syndrome,” a lot in the way in which Clooney’s character is striving to reconnect together with his daughters. Experiencing the sensation of, “Oh my God, my youngsters are instantly grown-up individuals on this planet,” Mortimer explains this second as being one “the place you are questioning how you probably did” as a dad or mum and “panic of the truth that they are not going to be there.”
The co-star/co-writer continued by describing it as a “actually painful” time wherein a dad or mum, be they a film star or not, “assumes they will be there without end,” just for the kids venturing out into the world to go away one feeling “they’re simply not [there] anymore“:
Emily Mortimer: After all, it is not like they actually go, however on the time when it is taking place at that second, it seems like they’re. There is a line within the movie: “The paradox of parenting is that you simply solely actually know for those who’ve executed it properly after they’ve left.” That was positively a really actual factor for me in the mean time that we have been writing the script.
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Jay Kelly begins streaming on Netflix on December 5.
- Launch Date
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November 14, 2025
- Runtime
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132 minutes
- Director
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Noah Baumbach
- Writers
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Emily Mortimer, Noah Baumbach
- Producers
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David Heyman, Noah Baumbach, Amy Pascal