Compare George Clooney’s 2007 Clayton look with the ultra-slender, not-an-ounce-of-fat, rich-movie-star appearance he’s sporting today…he’s probably a good 15 pounds lighter now than he was 18 years ago.
And yet the Clayton thing — slightly puffy-faced, perhaps a bit of a boozer, not-bordering-on-overweight-but-getting-there — undoubtedly enhanced his Clayton character…a “bagman” attorney for a large NYC law firm…a fixer who cleans up messes (a “niche”) and who suffers from a sense of frustration and bitterness, not to mention a touch of low self-esteem.
If Clooney had been as thin back then as he is today, his Clayton performance — his career best — wouldn’t have worked as well.
Is his Jay Kelly performance nearly as good? Yes, nearly. Nominatable, I would say.
