George Clooney has revealed he is “irritated” by director Quentin Tarantino’s comments about whether he is considered a movie star.

The Hollywood actor had his first significant big screen part when he starred opposite Tarantino in 1996 cult vampire film From Dusk Till Dawn, directed by Robert Rodriguez.

Clooney, 63, got candid about the state of movie stars in Hollywood during a joint cover story for GQ magazine along with his long-time friend and co-star Brad Pitt ahead of the release of their new film Wolfs.

Asked if he should point out to Tarantino that he is available for casting, Clooney said: “Listen, I did a movie with Quentin. He played my brother.”

Pitt jumped in to add: “Oh, that’s right. He was pretty good in it too.”

Clooney said Tarantino’s acting was “OK”, before adding: “Quentin said some s— about me recently, so I’m a little irritated by him.

“He did some interview where he was naming movie stars, and he was talking about you (Pitt), and somebody else, and then this guy goes, ‘Well, what about George?’ He goes, ‘He’s not a movie star’.

“And then he literally said something like, ‘Name me a movie since the millennium’. And I was like, ‘Since the millennium?’, that’s kind of my whole f—ing career.”

Regular Tarantino collaborator Pitt laughed, but Clooney said: “Now I’m like, ‘All right, dude, f— off’. I don’t mind giving him s—. He gave me s—.

“But no, look, we’re really lucky we got to work with these great directors. [The] director and [the] screenplay is what keeps you alive.

“I learned that after doing some really bad films. You can’t make a good film out of a bad script. You can’t do it. You can make a bad film out of a good script. You can f— it up.”

It is unclear which interview Clooney is referring to. But he also revealed he was shocked to be in his 40th year of acting.

“I remember I talked to [Matt] Damon about this 25 years ago, when he first hit with his movie and won the Oscar,” Clooney said.

“I was like, ‘Just know that if you get a 10-year career, playing at that level, it’s an absolute jackpot’. Nobody sustains it much longer than that. So yeah, I’m surprised that I still have the work.”

Go behind the scenes of Brad Pitt and George Clooney’s GQ cover shoot in the South of France.

🔗: https://t.co/254zaXcm5c pic.twitter.com/qBCyZ22V8q

— GQ Magazine (@GQMagazine) August 13, 2024

In 2022, Tarantino hit out at the “Marvelisation of Hollywood”, referring to the increase in superhero movies.

He told Tom Segura’s 2 Bears, 1 Cave podcast: “You have all these actors who have become famous playing these characters. But they’re not movie stars.

“Captain America is the star, or Thor is the star. I think that’s been said a zillion times … but it’s these franchise characters that become a star.”

Tarantino directed Pitt in the films Once Upon A Time In Hollywood and Inglourious Basterds. He also directed an episode of TV medical drama ER featuring Clooney.

Elsewhere in the GQ interview, Pitt said he learned of Clooney following the 1997 crash that killed Princess Diana, as he was outspoken about feeling “horrible” being followed by the paparazzi.

“It’s really invasive to know people are out there and they’re hiding in the bushes. It’s really a s—ty, s—ty feeling,” Pitt said.

“So George got up and commented on that after Princess Diana. And that’s when I saw ‘this guy’s got something that the rest of us don’t’. Like, I saw the leader in that moment.”

Clooney said he and his Ocean’s Eleven and Burn After Reading co-star had been “friends for a long time”, and they checked in on each other often.

“We deal in very serious subject matters, with very serious bad guys, and we don’t want to have photos of our kids out there,” he said.

-with AAP