George Clooney talks 'The Midnight Sky,' Joe Biden, Santa Claus and how kids have changed him

George Clooney would like you to know that his latest movie beard is real and it’s spectacular. Even ol' Santa Claus might be a little jealous.

Clooney directed the apocalyptic drama “The Midnight Sky” (streaming Wednesday on Netflix) and plays a dying astronomer with amazing facial hair. The beard “lingered on in the makeup trailer, stuck to a piece of sticky tape,” his co-star Felicity Jones reports.

Was it a stunt beard? Beard augmentation? Nothing of the sort, Clooney proudly states. “I shot all my stuff first and the day I finished – because, believe me, my kids wanted it (gone) – I shaved it all off and kept it in one piece in case I had to come back for a reshoot.

“It was like something Jack Elam dug out of his navel. It was scary.”

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“The Midnight Sky” follows scientist Augustine Lofthouse (Clooney) as he tries to warn a returning crew of astronauts (including Jones) that much of mankind has been wiped out by deadly radiation while also trying to keep an 8-year-old girl (Caoilinn Springall) safe.

Clooney, 59, knows all about having little ones around: The actor, who calls himself “the Tony Randall of parents," is father to 3-year-old twins Ella and Alexander with wife Amal Clooney. "It is such a fascinating process of watching these kids and trying to play out what their future is going to be," he says. "Basically our job is to sort of point them with a North Star and keep them alive until they begin to hate you later."

One of the world's coolest dads – and dog father to a St. Bernard puppy, Rosie – Clooney talks with USA TODAY about his new movie, how fatherhood changed him, and the holly jolly guy he has been chatting with lately.

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Q: How much does being a father yourself help in portraying and connecting with characters like Augustine?

George Clooney: They'll always say "Don't work with kids and dogs,” but the truth is your character can survive a lot of really unscrupulous kind of flaws as long as you're taking care of a kid. On “ER,” I was a drunk and a womanizer, but at the end I'd be like: "Don't touch that kid! You leave that kid alone!" And everybody's like, “Oh, he loves kids. He's a good guy.”

Q: When I became a dad, I instantly turned into this huge softie. What about you has changed the most?

Clooney: It’s always very humbling. I was broke for a good third of my life. I can change the fan belt on your car. I can fix anything. I'm scrappy, always have been. And then suddenly, you have these kids and you realize you're so ill-equipped. I spent this whole period of time where I got successful and somebody else does the laundry. And now you have kids and for a number of reasons – one is because there's nobody around (during COVID) – we're washing dishes and mopping floors and staining all the furniture. You're doing all that stuff that you kind of thought you might not be doing.

I've gotten back to my roots as a chef. Because believe me, my wife, she can do anything. I mean, she gets journalists out of jail – you would never think you'd get a journalist out of jail in Myanmar or Egypt or Azerbaijan. She does amazing things, but don't let her near the kitchen. It's a devastating thing.

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Q: After a crazy year politically, do you think America is rocketing in the right direction, or might we still have to deal with some pesky meteor showers?

Clooney: Well, we’ve got some meteor showers coming I think. (But) I feel like we're in so much better shape because I do think this: Moments meet the man or woman. And this is Joe Biden's moment. He is a compassionate, kind man. And we're going to need that after we've lost probably close to 400,000 people by the time we get (COVID-19) in our rear-view mirror.

Q: Speaking of wise old men, what are Ella and Alexander asking Santa for this year?

Clooney: Ella wants a toy bus, and Alexander wants a toy airplane with Santa in it. I had a conversation with Santa outside their door the other day because they were kind of acting up. Santa asked me if they were being good girls and boys and I said: “Well, I think they are, Santa. Pretty sure.” And they stopped talking in the bedroom, it got really quiet, and Santa left and I opened the door. They were like, “That was Santa?” And I go, “Yeah.” And they said, “We're being good!” I go, "I want to say that to him, but you gotta prove it.”

Q: When my daughter was 3, I couldn’t stop singing the “PAW Patrol” theme song. Has anything like that happened to you?

Clooney: I’m constantly walking around (going) "Pehhhh-pa Pig!" It actually makes me crazy. Now, thank God, they're getting into a little bit of “Sesame Street” because the song's good. We sang it when we were kids. That one's a relief and I can relate to some of the characters. It's not these little British Peppa Pigs. I said to the kids yesterday, “OK, so when Santa comes, we're going to leave cookies and milk.” And Alexander goes, “No, cookies and mince pie.” I was like, I'm taking away all their little British cartoons right now. It's not a jumper, it's a sweater. It does actually sound good with an English accent, I guess.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: George Clooney on 'The Midnight Sky,' fatherhood, Santa and Joe Biden