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Clooney sees lessons in nominated filmActor-director-producer says political movies mirror society
 George Clooney: "The liberal movement morally has stood on the right side of a lot of issues." SPECIAL REPORT
YOUR E-MAIL ALERTS(CNN) -- Actor-director George Clooney on Thursday said he sees modern-day lessons in "Good Night, and Good Luck," his Oscar-nominated drama about CBS newsman Edward R. Murrow's battle with Sen. Joe McCarthy. "When you hear Murrow saying, 'We mustn't confuse dissent with disloyalty,' and 'We should lead not only in the area of bombs but in the area of ideas.' "And when he says, 'We can't defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home,' I think those have a lot to do with things that are going on today," Clooney told CNN's "Larry King Live." "What's important about the film was it reminds us that these things are cyclical," he said. Clooney, the son of a local television journalist in the Cincinnati, Ohio, market, said he made the film in part because "it's a point in history that I'm most proud of." "The two great moments in broadcast journalism," he said, were "Murrow taking on McCarthy and [Walter] Cronkite coming home from Vietnam and saying, 'This war doesn't work.' " Clooney last month picked up Academy Award nominations for directing "Good Night, and Good Luck" and co-writing its original screenplay with Grant Heslov. He was also a pick for best supporting actor for his performance as a CIA agent in the provocative oil-industry thriller "Syriana." The nominations marked the first time the same person has been nominated for acting in and directing separate movies in the same year. "Good Night, and Good Luck" also received nominations for best picture and best actor (David Strathairn, who portrays Murrow), while "Syriana" earned a nod for best original screenplay for its director and writer, Stephen Gaghan. Clooney also served as executive producer for "Syriana." The 44-year-old former star of television drama "ER" said he wasn't expecting to win all of the awards for which he is nominated and that he is basking in the days before the awards ceremony March 5. "The truth is, right now is sort of a great time," he said. "A film that you sat down and wrote is nominated for six Academy Awards. And the other film that you produced is nominated for two. We're not going to win six and two." Clooney acknowledged that taking stands on controversial issues was not necessarily beneficial for his career, but he defended his outspokenness. "I'm not holding press conferences. I'm not standing up saying, 'This is what you should think,' " he said. "I'll sit here with you and I'll answer a question. Now, should I not say what I believe?" "I find that people on the left and right -- it's an incredibly polarized time -- in general, we're trying to find things that we can agree on," he said. "One of them, for me, is we have to agree on the idea that we're allowed to question authority. "We have to agree on the idea that that's not unpatriotic. And I think most people do," he said. "I would be ashamed if I, 20 years from now, wasn't standing on what I think would be partially the right side of history." Clooney rejected the notion that a resurgence of politically oriented films shows Hollywood to be out of touch with mainstream America: "I think it's exactly the opposite." "I think that when we had politically motivated films the last time, mid '60s to the mid '70s ... There were a million things going on in society that we paid attention to," he said, pointing to the Vietnam War and movements for civil rights and women's rights. "I think now films are reflecting the exact same thing going on in society today, which is for the first time since then, people are sitting at restaurants and having conversations about their concerns or their beliefs in the political system," he said. Clooney also acknowledged a "liberal bent" to his work. "I don't make any apologies about that. I am a liberal; I believe in it," he said. "People whisper that; they whisper it like you'd whisper 'Nazi.' " "I'm confused when ['liberal'] became a bad word," he said. "The liberal movement morally has stood on the right side of a lot of issues." 
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