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George Clooney already knows he’s no longer a leading man in Hollywood.

And he’s OK with that.

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In the last few years, the eternally handsome Oscar-winner has only appeared in a handful of movies. His last onscreen appearance was in 2016’s Money Monster.

“I’m 56 years old and I’ve lived my life,” he observes. “I’ve done the crappy films and I’ve done films with crappy people – and that’s the truth. Sometimes those movies ended up being good, but it wasn’t worth the life hell of doing it.”

Still, he hasn’t lost his thirst for moviemaking.

When he was in Toronto last month to talk up Suburbicon – his dark satire about a middle-class family man (Matt Damon) who hatches a plan to kill his wife (Julianne Moore), marry her twin sister (Moore, again) and collect the insurance money – he was enthusiastic about his second act as a venerable filmmaker – one that doesn’t have to be the main star.

“I still read scripts every once in awhile,” he tells Postmedia Network. “I used to read three or four a week, now I read one every two months. I’m waiting for another Michael Clayton or another Descendants,” he continues name-checking two of his Oscar-nominated roles. “But I’m waiting for one that makes sense for me to do.”

So he has switched his focus more to writing and directing. Suburbicon (which opens Friday, Oct. 27) was a natural fit because he was able to marry a real-life event in 1950s Levittown, Pa., when a black family moved into an all-white neighbourhood, with an unproduced screenplay by Joel and Ethan Coen.

Threaded through those dark comedic elements of the Coen brothers’ original blood-soaked script, were hints at a story that mirrors the racial tensions permeating contemporary American society.

“That whole idea of, ‘We’re not bigots, but don’t move in next door,’ seems to be fairly universal and we all felt those are themes that are going to keep on going,” Clooney says.

But despite its resonance – especially in light of recent protests in Charlottesville, Va. – Suburbicon is not a political film, he adds.