George Clooney has always been wife Amal Clooney‘s biggest supporter, especially when it comes to her career as an international human rights lawyer. Occasionally, that has led to Clooney championing her work publicly and raising awareness around the important work she does. A recent example of this is Clooney’s comments on Amal’s case against ISIS, the first of its kind, being taken to court soon. The case is bound to be a landmark one not just for Amal, but historically too, and Clooney has both big hopes and big concerns about it.
Clooney revealed the news about Amal’s caseload while promoting his new Hulu series, Catch-22, on The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast. At one point during the conversation, Clooney opened up about protecting his kids —twins Alexander and Ella, nearly 2 — in today’s world. It was in this comment that he spilled the beans about the seriousness of Amal’s next case.
“Everything changes when you have two kids on how you have to protect them,” Clooney told THR. “My wife is taking the first case against ISIS to court, so we have plenty of issues — real, proper security issues — that we have to deal with on a fairly daily basis. We don’t really want our kids to be targets, so we have to pay attention to that. But, you know, we also live our lives. We don’t hide in corners.”
Earlier in the interview, Clooney spoke about how his level of fame has affected his ability to have a somewhat normal life with Amal and the kids.
“It’s the kind of thing where going to a ballgame and sitting out with the gang isn’t really possible — it’s distracting for everybody else, and not necessarily fun for me,” he explained. “I miss some of that. My wife and I wanted to walk our kids in Central Park, and that’s just not possible. We tried, but we walk out the door and everybody surrounds them. And there’s a bounty on my kids’ head for a photo, so that’s something that we are very conscious of.”
Although Clooney didn’t divulge any specifics about the case (likely because it would mess up any work Amal is doing), his concerns on the real security issues that come with a case of this magnitude is chilling. After more than 40 years in film and television, Clooney is mostly numb to the trappings of fame as a celebrity. He’s had time to deal with cameras in his face and eager fans, but ensuring his children don’t get in the crossfire of his hectic life in the public eye is a whole different issue. He’s right in acknowledging that Amal’s work is both very important and potentially dangerous — and both those factors will only increase with this case against ISIS.
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