George Clooney on directing 'The Boys in the Boat,' sweet family traditions with wife, Amal Clooney
George Clooney’s latest film, “The Boys in the Boat,” had him back in the director’s chair, which allowed him to flex his creative side.
"It’s fun doing both," the Academy Award winner told "Good Morning America" about acting and directing. "Behind the camera’s fun because you get to be the boss, you know? It’s more creative."
In the new film, which is set during the height of the Great Depression, Clooney tells the underdog story of the University of Washington men’s rowing team, who stunned the world by winning the gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics.
"These kids rowed not because they were a legacy, but because they wanted to eat. Just for food," Clooney said.
"The major theme was, 'We gotta do things together. We need to be together,'" he added. "We’re better all of us together."
The film stars actors Joel Edgerton, Callum Turner, Peter Guinness, Sam Strike, Thomas Elms, Jack Mulhern and more.
Just like the Olympic athletes -- Joe Rantz, Herbert Morris, Gordon Adam, John White, James McMillan, George Hunt, Donald Hume, Robert Moch and Charles Day -- who led the U.S. to victory in 1936, Clooney said the actors who portrayed the team had never rowed before either.
"Rowing’s hard," Clooney said. "People asked me, they were like, 'Did you get in the boat?' I’m like, 'What am I, an idiot? No.'"
When he’s not in front of the camera or in the director’s chair, Clooney is a father to twins Ella and Alexander, 6, who he shares with wife Amal Clooney.
"Twins tell you a lot," Clooney said. "When you have twins and you’re raising them the same time, the same way, and they’re completely different human beings, you realize how little say you have in who they are."
"You try to give ‘em some boundaries and you try to give them things that you believe in," he added. "But they’re just different -- they come out with an opinion and I mean, it’s amazing to watch how different my kids’ personalities are. And they were raised by the same parents."
Next year Clooney and his wife will celebrate 10 years of marriage, but the couple still keeps the romance alive with handwritten letters. They also aim to pass the tradition on to their children with letters they’ve written each year for them to read later on.
"We write our kids a letter every summer about where we are in the world," Clooney said. "We haven’t given ‘em to ‘em. We have stacks of ‘em that we’ll give ‘em to when they’re old enough to understand. I like the idea of writing down a moment in time and having a time capsule to say, 'Wow, this is what we’re thinking and this is what our hopes were.' And you can compare it to where you end up."
