George Clooney, Noah Wyle share emotional reunion on AARP Awards

The Movies for Grownups Awards turned into a heartfelt ER reunion Saturday night as George Clooney and Noah Wyle reunited onstage — twice — and celebrated their decades-long friendship.

Both actors were honoured at the AARP-hosted event. Clooney won Best Actor for Jay Kelly, while Wyle received Best TV Actor for The Pitt.

While presenting Wyle’s award, Clooney joked that AARP should create a Sexiest Man Still Alive title, saying, “I would nominate Noah Wyle as the first guy.”

Reflecting on their early days, Clooney told the audience, “I met Noah in 1993. He hadn’t worked a lot yet and we did this show called ER and it was this crazy hit. At one time we had 40 million people watching and I remember Noah going, ‘Is that good?’ I was like, ‘That’s good, that’ll never happen again.’”

He continued praising Wyle, calling him “the kindest person I ever met” and adding, “I’m very proud to call him a friend, I’m also proud to call him a colleague. When I grow up, I want to be Noah Wyle.”

An emotional Wyle responded, “You got me choked up there buddy,” before crediting Clooney for shaping his approach to acting and leadership.

“I remember vividly, the first week of ER, he called the entire cast into his trailer and said ‘OK everybody, this is how it’s gonna be. We’re going to be nice to everyone… we’re going to learn our lines, we’re going to be on time,’” Wyle recalled.

He added, “And I spent the next 15 years trying to find that feeling… It was only with The Pitt that I found it again.”

Wyle later presented Clooney with his award, prompting Clooney to joke, “Movies for Grownups just means old people.”

Clooney closed with a heartfelt message, saying, “We live in a time of cruelty, we don’t need to be adding to it,” before adding, “Thank you for this. It’s going to be a long, tough couple of years but we’ll all get through it together.”