EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW FAMILY MAN

George Clooney opens up about loved ones, friendships and the allure of his new drama

- INTERVIEW: FRANCK RAGAINE

George Clooney insists his latest role as an aging Hollywood icon bears no resemblance to his own life story.

"I'm not that man!" the Oscar winner, 64, tells Hello! Canada about playing a famous actor searching for meaning in Jay Kelly, Netflix's new star-studded film, featuring Adam Sandler, Laura Dern and Billy Crudup. “I don’t have the regrets that this guy has. My kids still like me - they’re eight, but at this point they still like me! All the people that I’ve worked with I still work with. I have a very different life than this guy, so I didn’t really relate to him.”

What George can connect with is the movie’s European setting, where he and his wife of 11 years, human-rights lawyer Amal, 47, have chosen to raise their twins, Alexander and Ella. As he told Esquire, “I felt like they were never going to get a fair shake at life [if Los Angeles had been their base]. I don’t want them to be walking around worried about paparazzi. I don’t want them being compared to somebody else’s famous kids.”

Instead, home is their luxurious estate on Italy’s Lake Como and a sprawling French farm, where George relishes being a hands-on dad to his little ones while others his age are becoming grandparents.

Speaking of age, it’s something he’s addressed often lately while contemplating his priorities, not to mention the physical changes that come with advancing years.

“I had this conversation with Amal when I turned 60,” he told the New York Times earlier this year. “I said, ‘Look, I can still play full-court basketball. I can still run around. I can still do pretty much everything I did when I was 30. But in 30 years, I’m 90. That’s a real number. My dad just hit that. And there are some things you’re not doing, no matter how many granola bars you eat.’”