Ocean's Thirteen, the Interview

Oceans 13 George Clooney Ellen Barkin Matt Damon Brad Pitt
The cast from the film OCEANS 13, with (left to right) George Clooney, Ellen Barkin, Matt Damon, and Brad Pitt, photographed on the terrace at the Hotel du Cap in Cannes, France.
Greg Williams for TIME
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Were there any hoo-ah! moments in his performance?
BARKIN: What did he just call me?
CLOONEY: No, you're not a hoo-ah. No, no.
BARKIN: That was not nice. Not a nice Jewish boy.

Am I being ethnically profiled?
BARKIN: Yes, you are. I'm so happy there's another Jew in the room because when Steven isn't around ...
CLOONEY: I hate to tell you, but Soderbergh is Swedish.

Are you worried Matt Damon, Brad Pitt and George Clooney are going to start a pogrom?
BARKIN: I worry that every time I go to my hotel room, there are going to be areas that are cordoned off from me.
PITT: What's a pogrom?

It's an anti-Jewish riot. Pretty common in 19th century Eastern Europe.
CLOONEY: [Jokingly] You guys got a long memory. Jeez.
DAMON: Uh, anyway, I don't think anybody in this room is in a position to accuse Pacino of a hoo-ah! moment, especially in this movie, with some of the performances we turn in.
PITT: Hard to say somebody else is chewing scenery when you're wearing a fake nose.
DAMON: Yeah, I think Al was over the top!
CLOONEY: Our motto is, Less is nothing.

Shall we talk politics for a moment? I'm sure like most actors you're all watching the Republican field, just waiting for a candidate to get behind.
CLOONEY: I'm just hoping Gingrich gets in. Come on, Newt! Actually there's a really good field out there. I like Barack Obama a lot. I've spent some time with him.
PITT: You just cost him votes.
CLOONEY: I've actually had that conversation with him, just saying "Look, I'll give you whatever support you need—including staying completely away from you." Actors have done a lot of damage to candidates lately. My father ran for Congress in 2004, and it was "Hollywood vs. the Heartland!" My father was Hollywood.
PITT: I'm just hungry for some honesty and leadership. And I'm following them all—on all sides.
DAMON: I'm an Obama guy too. I think a lot of the problems in the world would be mitigated if he were the face of our country. I haven't ever met him or talked to him, but he's the first person in a long time who I've been inspired by.
CLOONEY: When other politicians stop and listen, that's how you know what charisma is. You can't teach that. He walks into a room and you go, "That's a leader."

On the subject of charisma, you've each been called the last great movie star at one point or another. Are we really running out of movie stars, and is that, like, a problem?
CLOONEY: The last real movie stars were probably Redford and Newman. And things were different then. There wasn't this amazing amount of magazines and information about them.
DAMON: We didn't know anything about them.
CLOONEY: There was mystique. They're 60 feet high, and you paid your buck and a half to go see them. But that's gone. People know everything about everybody now.
PITT: Jaws came along and proved you could make huge money with blockbusters, and it set this thing in motion that has lowered the subject matter. People like George have been getting good stuff out there, but it's an industry that pushes people out on the big stage too fast, before they're ready, and it eats them up as well. It's a different kind of arena now.
BARKIN: Think about it. Do we know anything about Robert Redford's children? Does he even have any?
DAMON: I worked with him, and I don't know.
PITT: I have four, if you haven't heard.

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