LOS ANGELES — George Clooney and I are talking in a hotel room in Beverly Hills, the same hotel where we met 27 years ago when he was promoting "Out of Sight" and he told me that leading men had about a decade to make their mark and it was all downhill from there.

"No one could be more surprised than me that I'm 64 years old and still getting to do what I love to do," Clooney says in that practiced, grounded, charming way of his.

Sixty-four, huh? Since he brought it up ...

Have you queued up the Beatles song since celebrating your birthday last year?

"I actually got a message from Paul, which is pretty cool," Clooney says, smiling.

Wait. Paul McCartney sent you a message on your birthday?

"Yeah, it was a video of him playing 'When I'm 64,'" Clooney says. He pauses to let this sink in — maybe for the both of us.

"I never really thought when I was cutting tobacco in Augusta, Kentucky, that I would meet Paul, much less become friends with him," Clooney says. "I feel very in awe. In the scheme of people, you look at Michael Jordan as the best to ever play the game. Paul's got to be in the conversation as one of the greats of all time. So it's really something to have him call up and do 'When I'm 64' for you."

During our digressive conversation, I learn, not surprisingly, that pretty much anybody who's anybody resides in Clooney's phone contact list.

"I'm old. I've been around," says Clooney, currently starring in Noah Baumbach's "Jay Kelly," playing a famous and, frankly, selfish actor taking stock late in life.

Is there anyone Clooney hasn't met? Let's find out.

Q: So McCartney sends you a video for your birthday. Do you ever send him a message out of the blue?

A: Sure, from time to time. He had this song come out, this beautiful Beatles song that had never been released.

Q: "Now and Then"? That song gutted me.

A: Dude, it brought me down. It had that Beatles sound and vibe. For those of us who grew up with the Beatles being the end all and be all of everything, it just brought you to a whole other place in time. He sent it to me, and I wrote him back and said, "Jesus, Paul. It's really beautiful."

Q: You've worked with Alfonso Cuarón, the Coens, Alexander Payne and Steven Soderbergh. Is there a director that you missed?

A: I almost did a movie with Ridley Scott a couple of times. His movies hold up, and that's hard to do with science fiction. But you look at "Blade Runner" and "Alien" and they don't feel dated at all.

Q: He's still going strong. He might have 10 more movies in him.

A: At least. [Laughs] He loves what he does.

Q: He probably wants to die on the set.

A: Well, that's where we all want to go. But I have a theory ... with the exception of Dick Shawn, if you're on stage, you can't die. There's something about the adrenaline. I remember being backstage at the Beverly Hills Hotel when Jimmy Stewart was giving Josh Logan, the director of "South Pacific" and films like that, an honor. And Josh is sitting in a wheelchair, slumped over. He's very old. Then Jimmy introduces him and Josh jumps out of his chair and he goes out and does a whole stand-up routine for seven minutes. I was 20 years old and seeing how this shot of energy to entertain really brought him to life made an impression.

Q: Jay Kelly is allergic to career retrospectives and honors. You ever submit?

A: I did the Kennedy Center Honors. I got an AFI tribute some years ago. It's odd. Because there's a part of you that goes, "I'm not done yet. I've still got work to do." And then you watch the clips. I don't watch movies or TV shows that I'm in. And in the movie, Noah uses clips of my actual movies for the montage at the end and then he shot my reaction to seeing it.

Q: You look touched. Or maybe you were acting.

A: You feel old! When I look in the mirror, I don't see myself as a 64-year-old dude. Sometimes someone will send me a paparazzi picture of me and I'll be like, "Who's that old f—? Oh yeah, that's me." And these tributes, you're watching yourself age on camera, which is not for p—.

Q: It's better than the alternative.

A: I'll take it. You know, people in my life who are gone, like my cousin Miguel Ferrer, I still think of him as the 27-year-old cat that was playing drums and acting. It's all part of the tapestry of your life and you're not really examining your life until somebody does that for you and you go, "Oh, man. I'm old."

Q: Are you much for self-examination?

A: I'm constantly trying to keep tabs on who I am as a person and hold myself to the standard that my father holds me to. I come up short. I do have that voice from my old man going, "Don't come back and look me in the eye until you do this."

Q: I saw an interview where you said — and I guess this is well-known — that you've never had a fight with your wife.

A: That's true.

Q: As someone who has been married nearly 30 years, I find that hard to believe.

A: Well, how old were you when you got married?

Q: I was 32.

A: There's a difference. I was 52. There's a reason why insurance rates when you're 16 to 25 are off the charts. It's aggression. I had no intention of getting married again, but I fell madly in love with the person who changed that. We have kids. I didn't want to have kids. Everything changed because I met this incredible person.

Q: Who you've never had a fight with ...

A: I'm in a much different place in life. I'm much more secure, and I am also less in the mood to win arguments. When you're young, you're trying to win everything.

Q: And now you're OK with conceding.

A: I'm not conceding. But nice try. You're going to get me in trouble with my wife. [Laughs.]

Q: If Amal says, "Enough with the motorcycle riding," you say, "You've got a point."

A: I did. And you know why? Because I did a head-over-heels. I was going 75 mph and my head shattered his windshield and then I went flipping in the air. You can see it. You can watch it online.

Q: I'm going to pass on that, thanks.

A: I landed on my hands and knees. Like you can throw a pencil in the air and how many times does it land on its tip. It's 100 to 1. I used up all my lives on that one. So when my wife said, "I think we're done," I said, "OK. Fair enough." By the way, there isn't a day that goes by where I don't miss it. But you know, my wife used to smoke, and I said, "I think it's time you quit." And I'm sure there isn't a day that goes by where she doesn't miss smoking a cigarette. But I'm really glad she stopped.

Q: Jay Kelly is plagued with regret, but I sense that you're not one to ruminate over the past.

A: Everyone has regrets. But I don't live with deep regrets. At each of the big crossroads in life, I chose the path that was more difficult but would have a greater impact. What's the worst thing that could happen? That it doesn't work out? I took a lot of chances. It's easier to live with those than not doing them.

Q: What's the biggest chance you took in life?

A: At 20 years old, jumping in my '76 Monte Carlo with rust all over it and saying, "I'm going to drive to California to be an actor." My cousin Miguel, who I had met maybe three, four times in my life, had come to Kentucky to make a horse racing movie and he got me a job as an extra. And he was like, "You've got to come to California to be an actor." So I got in the car, put a case of oil in the back because it was pouring out and I had to drive two days straight because if I turned the engine off, the car wouldn't start again.

Q: What's the biggest chance you took professionally?

A: I was doing a TV series and there was a famous executive producer. I won't name him because it wouldn't be fair or nice, I suppose. He would scream at people. I was the third or fourth banana on the show, and he was yelling and I stopped and said, "Knock it off." And he turned on me. "What did you say to me?" And I said, "F— knock it off." And I was eventually fired and then he did an interview saying I'd never work in this town again. I thought my career was over.

Q: What did you think you were going to do next?

A: I thought I might be going back to Kentucky and sell insurance.

Q: But here we are.

A: Somebody saw that interview and gave me a pilot and literally said, "I don't like that guy."

Q: The way you're telling me this, it feels like a moment of liberation that becomes your origin story.

A: I'd been in town for 10 years. You know, actors always come from a place of fear. When you're auditioning, "I hope they like me." When you're on the set, "I hope I don't f— it up." If the executive producer says, "Jump," you say, "How high?" You're always trying to please. And there was this part of me that went back to being a guy from Kentucky that was like, "Dude, you can't talk to me like that." It changed everything for me.

Q: Leading you to "ER" ... which makes me think of "The Pitt." Did you watch "The Pitt"?

A: I love "The Pitt." And I'm so f— happy for Noah [Wyle].

Q: If Noah offered you a ...

A: Guest shot?

Q: Yeah. What kind of role would you want?

A: Well, I wouldn't want to be a regular because I have children and a life. But I'd do something on the show in a heartbeat.

Q: Maybe just a guy who comes into the ER ...

A: With an arrow stuck in my hand. I'd do that.

Q: You're a famous prankster. Are we in a post-prank era? I was thinking about this after reading about all the shenanigans Robert Redford and Paul Newman pulled on each other.

A: Newman did a funny one with me. I directed "Leatherheads" and it bombed. And he had been racing and wrecked his car and sent me a picture of it wrapped with the poster of the movie. And he wrote, "Happens to all of us, pal."

Q: How did you know him?

A: I met him on the Warner Bros. lot when I was making "ER" and he was shooting a movie. I heard he was on the lot and I got in a golf cart and I see him outside the sound stage, smoking a cigarette and drinking a beer. We talked and he asked, "How's all this going for you?" And I said, "It's going OK." And he said, "Don't let them keep you inside." I didn't fully understand it at the time. But later we got to be friends and have a beer together. And he was talking about not letting fame keep you from living your life.

Q: Is there anyone you haven't met?

A: I never met Redford. I greatly admired him and would have really enjoyed meeting him. He and [Warren] Beatty, who I do know, were those guys who became producers really pushing the limits of taking on subject matters that were tricky and tough.

Q: It feels like a bygone era in a lot of ways. You must wonder what's going to happen with Warner Bros. with the sale.

A: I worry about that only because it's like with everything — history. It's Warner Brothers. It's an old-fashioned movie lot. And you know, I'm still under contract at Warner. And when I walk on that lot, I know this is where they shot "Casablanca." Michael Curtiz was here. ... This is where "All the President's Men" was shot. It's history, and I would hate to see that be lost somewhere along the way.

Q: It feels precarious.

A: The movie industry is really hanging by a thread right now. But we'll get through it.

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