Hollywood star George Clooney has slammed US President Donald Trump's former advisor Steve Bannon, calling him a "failed screenwriter".
Clooney blasted Bannon while speaking to a the media at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), reported Entertainment Weekly.
"I like picking fights. I like that Breitbart News wants to have my head. I'd be ashamed 10 years from now if those weaselly little voices are getting a lot higher every week as this presidency starts to look worse and worse weren't still (after me).
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"Steve Bannon is a failed f****** screenwriter, and if you've ever read (his) screenplay, it's unbelievable. Now, if he'd somehow managed miraculously to get that thing produced, he'd still be in Hollywood, still making movies and licking my a** to get me to do one of his stupid screenplays," Clooney said.
Before he became a prominent right-wing media baron and member of Trump's inner circle, Bannon worked in Hollywood as a producer and financier.
He also dabbled in screenwriting, having co-written a hip-hop musical based on Shakespeare's "Coriolanus" that takes place during the 1992 LA riots.
"Hollywood is being quite well represented right now in the West Wing somehow. You know, they say I'm out of touch. You want to call me a Hollywood liberal? Come at me. I sold ladies shoes, I sold insurance door to door, I worked at an all-night liquor store, I cut tobacco for a living.
"I can change the fan belt on my car. I grew up in that world in Kentucky. I know every bit of that world, and I know my friends and what they believe. And I know this is not a moment in our history that we'll look back and be proud of. So if I'm not standing on the side I believe to be right, I'd be ashamed," the actor-filmmaker added.
Clooney, 56, has mocked Bannon for his Hollywood background in the past as well.
The star, however, has no intentions to run for the highest office.
"The reality is there are many more people who are much better qualified than me. I think the reason people talk about is that our bench doesn't seem very good right now, it doesn't seem very exciting. By this time eight years ago we had already heard Obama give a speech at the convention and there was something going on. But right now nobody really sees anybody out there, so that's when the Rock (Dwayne Johnson) or whoever comes into play.
"For me, I will support whomever I can by doing fundraisers or whatever and helping in ways I'm probably better at than in making policies...I say just try to find a candidate that excites you, and it shouldn't be me," he said.
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