Early in the film, Billy Crudup (far left), as Jay Kelly's failed-actor friend Timothy, gives a scene-stealing performance of method acting technique, directed by Noah Baumbach (right). "I was like: 'Are you a method actor?' " recalls George Clooney (center). "Billy's like, 'No'. 'So what are you gonna do, dude?' He goes, 'I have no idea.' " Wilson Webb/Netflix Every Sunday during the shooting of Jay Kelly, Noah Baumbach's loving, elegiac tribute to the magic of filmmaking and the double-edged sword of stardom, he and the cast and crew would attend Movie Church. Baumbach would screen films for the cast and crew that, thematically or stylistically, inspired his Netflix dramedy. Films like Preston Sturges' 1941 film Sullivan's Travels, a screwball Hollywood industry satire in which a successful comedy director yearning to make a serious movie sets off on a road trip across America. Or Ingmar Bergman's existential 1957 drama Wild Strawberries, about a celebrated doctor traveling to receive an award, only to be confronted by memories that force him to reassess the choices that shaped his life. Related Stories Movies Casting Society Reveals 2026 Artios Awards Film Nominees, Hosts Movies Golden Globes Presenters Include George Clooney, Julia Roberts, Macaulay Culkin In Baumbach's film, Jay Kelly is a 60-something world-famous movie star (played by 60-something world-famous movie star George Clooney) who has a moment of crisis. He's estranged from his father (Stacy Keach) and oldest daughter, Jessica (Riley Keough), and senses his youngest, Daisy (Grace Edwards), about to leave for Europe, is slipping away. The sudden death of the director (Jim Broadbent) who gave him his big break and a post-funeral confrontation with Timothy (Billy Crudup), an old acting-school buddy who didn't make it, set him off. An Italian film festival has offered Jay a lifetime achievement award. He seizes on it as an excuse to chase Daisy through Europe, accompanied by his longtime agent, Ron Sukenick (Adam Sandler), hoping to pull his family together for a career-capping celebration. But as with Isak Borg in Wild Strawberries, the ghosts of Jay's past - the choices he made, the people he sidelined - refuse to stay behind. Jay Kelly emerged from Baumbach's own crisis of faith in cinema. "I had just made [2022's] White Noise, which was a difficult experience, partly because of COVID," Baumbach tells The Hollywood Reporter. "I finished it feeling maybe I didn't love filmmaking anymore, which was frightening. I spent all my life wanting to make movies and the last decades of my life making them. But do I still love it?" Clooney (left) and Baumbach on location in Tuscany, where Clooney's character, movie star Jay Kelly, is set to receive a lifetime achievement award. The film shot in Los Angeles, London, Paris and Italy. Rob Harris/Netflix Says Adam Sandler (right, with Clooney): George and I both know the feeling of what Jay Kelly was going through, considering his entire career, the choices that he makes and the pain it can cause," says Adam Sandler. "We both identified with the subject matter, as we both know what it's like to go away and make a movie. Life shuts down around you, and it's all about the movie." Peter Mountain/Netflix It was 2023's Barbie that pulled him back. Co-writing the script with his wife, Greta Gerwig, and watching her direct with visible joy rekindled something fundamental. "Greta has always influenced me," Baumbach says, "but watching her on that film reminded me of how I'd felt earlier in my career. That absolutely influenced how I approached Jay Kelly." Baumbach developed the script with Emily Mortimer, with whom he had grown close on White Noise, where Mortimer jokingly describes herself as "playing stage mother" to her actor children, Sam and May Nivola. "It started by him saying he wanted to make a film about a movie star who kind of runs away from his own life and goes a bit mad," Mortimer says. "And he wanted it to be on a train." From the beginning, they knew the role demanded a genuine movie star. "The audience needed to feel the same history with the character that the people in the movie do," Baumbach says. "It wouldn't have worked otherwise. George is perfect because there's something timeless about him. He could have been a movie star in any era." When Clooney read the script, he told Baumbach: "You wrote yourself into a corner. Only about three people can play this part." Adds producer David Heyman, "There aren't many people like George, with that body of work and that kind of star power." Baumbach and Mortimer lace Jay Kelly with insider jokes. There's a running gag about a piece of cheesecake that keeps appearing in Jay's rider. Clooney recognized it instantly. "I've certainly been in that position where, because you liked something once, somebody put it in your rider," he says. "For me, it was Fuji apples. Every time I walk in a room, there are Fuji apples." Still, both Baumbach and Clooney insist