These days, George Clooney often finds himself thinking about how modern movie stars are made. “Speaking as an older man now, it’s interesting how much harder it is than it was in the past,” says the 65-year-old Oscar winner. He has a few theories as to why: the changing shape of roles, the loss of security studios use to present young talent, and the landmine that is social media. “It’s harder,” he admits. “Talk to any big producer or big director: they’re constantly asking, ‘Who’s the leading man now?’ Who is the person?
To those asking, good news: Clooney has a name for you. Charming and broad-shouldered, Callum Turner starred in Clooney’s 2023 historical drama, Boys in the boat – And in the years that followed, the director became more convinced that Turner had got him. “He didn’t just go for the easy paycheck, he did really interesting work,” Clooney says. “Somehow, Callum has worked his way through all the noise and found a place where people look at him and say: ‘There’s something with this guy.’ It’s exciting to watch people say: ‘This guy – this is the guy I want to follow and care about.’”
Turner, now 36, has seen steady growth in the industry since he began acting in his early 20s. The London native made an impression in well-received indies such as Jeremy Saulnier’s tense thriller Green room A smart New York romance Tramps. It jumped to a total of $1.86 billion Fantastic beasts A series like Eddie Redmayne’s veteran older brother. Next month Boys in the boat Released, it topped the list of trending miniseries on Apple TV Air masters Along with Austin Butler, who was recently tossed Facebook.
We are now entering a pivotal summer for Turner. Two art-house passion projects will soon be in theaters — and they’re both starkly innovative Rose nevadaout June 19 and polarizing satire Pruning the rose bushbows in July — before facing its most significant test yet in August: leading a studio-backed and gorgeously prepared rom-com. Just one night Opposite Oscar nominee Monica Barbaro (Completely anonymous) and is run by the master of the genre in Will Gluck.
This indicates an inflection point. Turner has led commercial and independent hits, bold but firmly on the path to emerging talent. Appearing like a real movie star, the kind Gluck provided Easy A (Emma Stone) and more recently, Anyone but you (Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell) – It requires that presence, that mystery, which is hard to articulate and hard to find nowadays, as attention expands and disperses and fan bases shrink into niches. “I can’t explain it, but I know it when I see it,” Clooney said.
Powerful players in the industry believe that Turner has this quality. Now comes the moment when the audience needs to show up and agree.
“If you’re a guy like Callum, who’s really funny and physically good as well, and can be an action hero — those are the ingredients we used to have in movie stars,” Gluck says. The manager saw that Easy A Stone will be fired from her first audition. The huge success you have achieved Anyone but you Not only did he confirm the viability of theatrical comedies, he proved that Sweeney and Powell had the goods to attract millions to movie theaters. Gluck believes Turner is approaching a similar turning point: “He is capable of doing anything.”
Clooney thinks so too. If he gets his way, he says, Turner will become the next face of one of world cinema’s most respected and bankable franchises — as tabloids and whispers around town have been hinting at for months.
“I hope Callum eventually becomes the next Bond,” Clooney says without warning. “I think he will be a great Bond.” “He’s tall, handsome, charming and British, so he’s the perfect man to do this.”
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Turner wouldn’t give me an inch on this score. “I know as much as you know – in fact, I know as much as you know,” he says after I mention Amazon-MGM’s recent announcement that casting has begun for the new James Bond film, which will be directed by Denis Villeneuve. Is he at least interested in getting the gig, should he be offered it? Turner laughs to himself as he looks at his sneakers. “I will not comment on that.”
Betting markets like Kalshi have Turner as clear favourites. Jacob Elordi is believed to be on the hunt – “He sure looks like a great Bond. I mean, why not?” for him Saltburn co-star Rosamund Pike recently said GQ -And Sunset StreetTom Francis reportedly auditioned for the coveted role. No one can hide from this rumor mill. What can Turner say about this breathless speculation?
“I’ll tell you what’s funny about Bond: Even your best friends ask you, and people you haven’t spoken to in 10 years text you – and you don’t know anything!” Turner says. “It’s weird when something happens and nothing ever happens. I don’t really know anything. I just find it very amusing.”
We’re in Regent’s Park, where Turner often walks with Jolo, his beloved Labrador-Rottweiler mix who travels with him from job to job around the world. But there is no dog today. It was a hot May afternoon in central London, so Turner and his then-fiancée (and now wife), Grammy-winning artist Dua Lipa, took their puppy to nearby Hampstead Heath early in the morning to beat the heat.
Then Turner drove himself to meet me. Suddenly the sea of tourists crowding the park’s famous rose gardens parted, making way for the budding movie star wearing a Brut Archives T-shirt over a long-sleeved undershirt and tan shorts. His solid 6-foot-2 frame slid through the sweaty crowd to shake my hand. It blends well enough, but come on. This is his home, so those who recognize him keep a respectful distance.
He guided us out of the cluster, and we were now heading north. “I’ve never been to this part of the park because dogs aren’t allowed,” he says. “Let’s go in this direction because when we get out of this rose garden, it becomes more spacious.”
For the past four weeks, Turner has been at home in London – a luxury given the pace of his life of late. He and Lipa lived for the first few months of the year in Paris, where Turner took virtual French lessons five days a week, and are about to go stateside for seven months as Turner begins making back-to-back major films: a remake of the horror classic Ownco-starring Margaret Qualley and directed Smiling’Baseball movie Parker Finn and Marielle Heller The returnbased on an original story by Dave Eggers and backed by Sony, stars Tom Hanks as Turner’s main team’s pitching coach.
But before that, Turner and Lipa would officially tie the knot just a 15-minute walk from here at Marylebone’s Old Town Hall, on the last Sunday in May – and then celebrate the following weekend in Sicily alongside the likes of Elton John, Charli XCX and Joe Alwyn, with the Italian press obsessing over their every move. Turner often brings up his life partner during our time together, describing how she inspires him artistically but remains mum about their impending marriage. “You want to be inspired by the person you’re with,” he says. As for how to reconcile Between their demanding schedules: “We make sure we’re together as much as possible.”
He enjoyed being with her for the time being. Turner has just read the first few chapters of Zadie Smith’s book White teetha recommendation from Lipa’s famous luxury book club Service95. Last night, he and Lipa went to the theater to see Horror Sensation mania. “I don’t like horror movies, I just want to get back to my book. I mean I’m about to do one, so it’s not that I don’t like it – it just scares me!”
Even watching his beloved soccer team Chelsea crash out of the tournament, just before our conversation, brought Turner some familiar hometown comfort. “Today, when I went out to get coffee, this idiot said to me, ‘I finished 10th!’ Like, ‘That’s the first thing you’re going to say to me?’” Turner says with a smile. “Why are you giving it to me? Your team won!” But I love it. I love the pantomime.
This is a period of calm before a big storm of interest. Turner assures me that he is not worried, as most people in his position would be, about what will happen over the next few months. In a year of cautious optimism at the box office, all eyes are on Universal Just one night To see if he can keep the big screen rom-com revival alive – with Turner’s and Barbaro’s star wattage coming under particular scrutiny as they sell the thing with all their might.
“I don’t think about that,” Turner says of the film’s commercial performance when we demand a shaded park bench overlooking a meadow. “Obviously I want the film to do very well, but yeah – I’m not thinking about that.” Is it difficult to keep this stress out of mind? “It’s so easy not to think about it.”
It helps that Turner stays off the Internet. Just one nightThe high-concept premise — two New Yorkers find themselves attracted to each other on the one night of the year when unmarried people are allowed to have sex — has already set the Internet on fire. After the trailer fell The Guardian published the title “Cleansing But for sex? Social media exploded with the usual sarcasm and skepticism.
“I haven’t seen it because I don’t like being online. It’s addictive, isn’t it? The phone?” Turner says. (Lipa does, however; she has 87.7 million followers on Instagram, and frequently posts during her travels around the world.)
Turner brings all his swooning puppy charm to the film. “It’s very disarming, not manipulative, in the way everyone melts and becomes themselves in front of him — he allows others to become themselves,” Gluck says.
Going into this project, Turner had just wrapped Eternityanother high-concept love story distributed by A24. He’s seen scene-stealers John Early and Da’Vaine Joy Randolph “kill it” with all of their generally comedic roles. Their work prompted him to say yes Just one nightEven if nervously. “These guys really inspired me,” Turner says. “When Will and I started talking, I said, ‘Yes, I’m in,’ because I’ve seen them just make magic happen.” “I’m nowhere near their level, but this is something different I’m trying to achieve. It’s very scary.”
Eternity Star Elizabeth Olsen notes that Turner is developing into the perfect comedic character. He came out of his shell before her eyes by leaning into a certain mythical quality: “Callum is a classic movie star, matinee idol type. He doesn’t want to break – and so when he does break a little bit, you’re really able to tap into that.”
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Turner grew up in a working-class council estate within the affluent London borough of Chelsea. He had two early loves: football and movies. He aggressively pursued the former but was exposed to all types of culture and arts through his single mother who worked in nightclubs as an owner and promoter. “Having my mom and her brilliant friends living with us, there were different worlds I was diving into,” Turner says. “There was a lot of acting when I was a kid to make my mother laugh.”
Until entering adulthood, Turner never thought of work as a job, but was forced into it as a form of expression. He decided to start taking lessons at the age of 20 after he was rejected from drama school. This was also when he started modeling professionally. At the age of 21, he signed with an agent. At the age of 22, he landed a major role on the ITV show leavingOpposite Helen McCrory. He continued working for a few years and then filmed his breakout role Trampswhich was sold to Netflix after a buzzy premiere in Toronto.
“I remember being on Skype with my agent, and thinking, ‘Damn, this is what I want to do,’” Turner says of that period. “But I never wanted to be really famous at a young age. Hats off to those people who are famous at a young age and are able to handle it and put on a show and act with all these people around them.”
Turner calls Air masters The moment when he was able to be “truly free with himself,” to attack a high-profile role with all those years of pent-up hunger and on-the-job training. “The challenge was: it wasn’t to be avoided, but to seize it with both hands,” he says.
By this point, Turner was already an avowed film fan. He once said that he saw an Oscar winner 12 years of slavery Four times in the theater at 23 during its first week of release — and you can draw a direct line from this prestigious drama to your current viewing habits. This week alone, plus maniaTurner examination father With Anthony Hopkins Japanese drama Nobody knows And maybe for the tenth time, One of them flew over the cuckoo’s nest. This latest rewatch was done alongside Lipa.
“It was the first time she’d seen her, and I said, ‘There are some famous faces here – let me see if you can guess them,’” Turner says, cracking up. “I was so obsessed with this: I’ve seen this movie before, so see if you can spot these things!” “
For the record, Turner’s colleagues tend to appreciate his rich knowledge base.
On set Air mastersTurner approached Butler. Here were two actors on the cusp of big-time Hollywood fame, often isolated together due to coronavirus restrictions, embarking on a months-long intense physical and emotional shoot. “We bonded early over our shared love of cinema. We talked about actors and films we admired – Nicholson, De Niro, Daniel Day-Lewis, films like I mean the streets, One of them flew over the cuckoo’s nest, There will be blood“It was nice to have someone who spoke the same language,” Butler says.
Or how about: “I think of Bryson every time I think of Callum,” Elizabeth Olsen tells me. Turner introduced her to the legendary mid-century French director where they got to know each other Eternity. “He has a great passion for Bresson’s films.”
“There is no film that man has not seen,” says George MacKay, Turner’s co-star in the film. Rose nevada. On that simple set in Cornwall, Turner would stream films on his phone whenever he got the chance. “There was one time where we were on the boat, and I said to myself, ‘What are you watching?’ McKay says. “It was an old black and white Italian movie, during my lunch break or something.”
When I think back to MacKay’s memory, Turner immediately says: “Well, that was it Fists in pocket“, satirized Marco Bellocchio in 1965. Copy that.
Located in a remote coastal village, Rose nevada It’s a defiantly special film, true to director Mark Jenkin’s reputation (The taste, Anis’ men). It was filmed with a 16mm Polex clock camera which records for 27 seconds at a time and does not capture sound. The result is a beautifully surreal poem with a beautiful tone, in which MacKay and Turner find quiet depth as their characters sail and fish. It’s the kind of tough project where the actor is shown willing to get down and dirty. Turner had seen Jenkin’s previous work and wondered: “Who the hell is this guy?” And I signed on Rose nevada Without reading a single word of the script.
MacKay, who led Sam Mendes 1917 The following appears in focus Feeling and sensitivity Adapt is two years younger than Turner. They auditioned for many of the same parts over the years and finally got to know each other Rose nevada.
“I was really inspired by his ambition,” says Mackay. “You can feel the path he was carving for himself – Callum is aggressively setting out towards the aspirations he has to become a big player in the industry, but not in a crass way.” “He doesn’t talk about it. He’s not out there screaming from the rooftops. But you can feel it. … He wants to work with the best, and that’s what ambition is for. And that’s what I respect: it’s about wanting to be at the top of your game.”
In fact, Turner makes strong choices as more options are placed in front of him. Summer conjunction Rose nevada and Just one night — one a subtly uncompromising independent film, the other an obscure, expensive-looking studio picture — indicates a career form he hopes to continue refining. “I think everything has flavour… but I like big movies and I like small movies,” Turner says. “Why don’t I see what I’m capable of?”
When asked for a list of dream directors, Turner smiled and said, “Do you want me to say Dennis?” A reference to Villeneuve, who will direct the next Bond film (and yes, he is in it). Otherwise, he names a host of huge and emerging characters – from Nolan to PTA Mama EarthSavannah leaves and scraperCharlotte Regan, both in their early 30s and just making their debut.
Turner’s focus on young directors reflects his greatest encouragement at what is often a perilous moment for his industry. He cites a recent study that revealed that Generation Z is now the most active demographic in theater. “It’s very interesting, and it’s interesting that people under 25 are kind of rebelling against their phones,” he says. “Do you remember when we were kids, we rebelled against our parents for whatever reason? They would say: ‘I need to go into a dark room where I’m not allowed to use my phone and I won’t use it.’ And now they’re building this ownership back on cinema.
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We’ll take another loop through the park, back toward Turner’s car. Turner will head to a session with his dialect coach, with whom he has collaborated on every film that required some sort of notable vocal adjustment. This is the area of the craft that Turner takes very seriously.
“He remained American the whole time, and we finished at five in the morning, and everyone on set, even New Yorkers, was like, ‘Who the hell is this guy?’” “They had no idea he was British,” Gluck says of their work. Just one night.
Clooney had the same experience Boys in the boat: “He came in with an American accent the first time I met him. The whole shoot, he spoke with an American accent – I’d never heard him have a British accent. We had a wrap party, and he started speaking with a British accent. I felt like I’d lost a friend.”
Stories like this speak to what becomes clear after spending a few hours with Turner: He doesn’t take any of this for granted. He remembers the period after he was shot Air masters and Boys In the boatthe projects that together were about to change his life, as one of unnerving oblivion. Release plans continued to be pushed forward due to industry strikes and ongoing pandemic issues. He turned down jobs to ensure he would be available to the press, when the time came. He wanted to do it right. The delay was emotional and frustrating, but his teammates noticed the way he acted, before and after. He has proven his patience.
“Everyone has a cell phone, so you might stand out one drunken night out, or if you’re Timothée Chalamet, you might say one thing you don’t like and he’ll follow you around like crazy,” Clooney says. “It’s very difficult to avoid doing something stupid early in your career now – much harder than it was when I was younger. Having a good head on his shoulders, and understanding who he is, makes a big difference for Callum along the way.”
Even filmmakers who haven’t worked with Turner yet are starting to catch up with him — for example, the only two American directors selected for the main competition at the Cannes Film Festival last month. Turner reveals that he was set to star in an earlier version of the Ira Sachs film The man I lovethe quirky 1980s drama starring Rami Malek that premiered to warm reviews. They have been introduced to each other for the project as it appears to be moving forward. (“I said ‘yes,’ and he said ‘yes,'” Turner said.) Although Sachs later changed its format and Turner fell, they grew closer together. When Turner was last in New York, he texted Sachs asking if he wanted to grab a drink. They ended up going to see jazz together.
He also met Turner paper tiger Director James Gray cast a role on Zoom that was scheduled to be one hour long and ended up taking four hours. “I was like, ‘I gotta go,’ and he was like, ‘Where do you have to go?'” Turner recalls with a laugh. “I said, ‘I can’t talk to you all day!'” Do you know when you just click with someone? “We’re buddies now.”
Gray recently invited Turner and Lipa to his house for a dinner party while they were visiting Los Angeles. They were unable to make it but stopped by the venue later that night, as per Gray’s initial suggestion. Unfortunately, it was late enough that Gray texted them not to come because he and his family were going to bed. “He was like, ‘I can’t believe you’ve come to my house this late, you bastard,’” Turner says. “We all had a little meeting, and then we just quieted down for an hour or so. Dua then beats them all in a game of backgammon. “She’s a killer at backgammon.”
As we head out of the park, we have yet to hear what Turner and Lipa are up to tonight. “Dua and I have a very strong collection of art that we love, rely on, and share with each other,” he says. They have settled down Cuckoo’s nest That night while browsing the broadcast queue, understanding Turner’s deep love for her. He plans to do a deeper dive into Nicholson’s work soon.
Referring to Turner’s ongoing horror marathon, in preparation for OwnRemember Toni Collette’s tour de force Hereditary. Turner admits that he has only seen director Ari Aster’s catalog midsummer – After deliberately putting the rest aside. “I do this thing here sometimes I block people — it’s kind of stupid or clever, I don’t know,” Turner says. I never listened to the Beatles until three years ago.” Again, this was intentional. Why? “Because I knew they were so great that I wanted something to look forward to.”
“I’m so glad I did it because I love them so much,” he adds.
This is a man who believes in discipline, but don’t confuse that with perfection. He realizes the potential for disappointment and failure. He still wants to take that leap. “It’s great to fall flat on your face, because if you try something and it doesn’t work, at least you tried it,” he says. “It’s like in Cuckoo’s nest When he can’t lift the fountain to escape – at least he tries. You just have to try it, man.
He’s newly married, with the biggest movie release of his career in a few months and new high-profile roles to take on for the rest of the year. The disturbing Bond rumors still haunt him. However, Amami looks enviably at ease. He took out his keys as we approached the rows of cars parked opposite For green grass in early summer. “I’m excited. I feel like I’m in a good place,” he says. “This is all I wanted.”
This story appeared in the June 10 issue of The Hollywood Reporter. Click here to subscribe.
