George Clooney with his wife Amal Clooney at The Albies in London on Friday. (Source: AP)
Photo : AP
Movie star George Clooney has criticised US President Donald Trump’s proposal to impose a 100% tariff on films produced outside the United States, saying it targets the wrong problem in Hollywood.
Speaking ahead of the annual Albies awards ceremony in London — an event he and his wife Amal Clooney founded to honour global human rights defenders — the actor said the President’s concern about jobs leaving California was justified but misplaced in its remedy.
“Trump’s take that movie industry jobs are leaving California is true,” Clooney said. “But that’s because we don’t have proper tax incentives or rebates like you do in New York.”
He added that a better solution would be to strengthen domestic support for the industry rather than penalising international productions. “If he wants to implement a federal incentive that would match the kinds of incentives we get in Louisiana and New Jersey and New York, then I think that would make a big difference in helping out,” Clooney said.
In a post on social media platform Truth Social, Trump said: “Our movie making business has been stolen from the United States of America, by other Countries, just like stealing candy from a baby.”
The move would extend Trump’s protectionist trade agenda into cultural industries, creating new uncertainty for major studios that rely heavily on international co-productions and box-office revenue from global audiences.
Industry analysts say the measure could have wide-ranging effects, as most films today are produced and distributed digitally through platforms such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Disney+. While these services are largely based in the US, their content is often created through international partnerships.
The US film industry recorded a $15.3 billion trade surplus in 2023, backed by $22.6 billion in exports to international markets, according to data from the Motion Picture Association.
Studio executives have expressed confusion about how such a tariff could be implemented, given that modern film production involves complex global supply chains — from visual effects teams in Canada and the UK to post-production facilities in Asia.
“It’s not clear how a movie tariff would even work,” one studio executive told news agency Reuters earlier this year, noting that many projects blend production, financing and creative work across several countries.
A coalition of American film unions and guilds had earlier written to the White House urging the administration to focus on domestic tax incentives rather than punitive tariffs. The group argued that encouraging productions to return to US states through fiscal measures would be a more effective way to protect industry jobs.
Critics now fear that a sweeping tariff could harm the thousands of American workers employed on overseas film projects whose work often depends on international collaboration.