In an interview with French radio earlier this month, Clooney praised French privacy laws that protect his family from paparazzi.

“Here, they don’t take photos of kids. There aren’t any paparazzi hidden at the school gates. That’s number one for us,” he told RTL Radio.

The Jay Kelly star and his wife, a British-Lebanese human rights lawyer, are parents to eight-year-old twins, Ella and Alexander.

The Clooneys own a property in southern France, in a former wine estate called the Domaine du Canadel, near the village of Brignoles, which they purchased in 2021. The pair also owns an estate in Italy’s Lake Como region, purchased in 2002, and bought a historic manor in England.

Clooney told RTL that although the family travels frequently, their home in France “is where we’re happiest”.

In an interview with Esquire in October, Clooney described their “farm in France” as their primary residence, and noted that the couple made a conscious choice to raise their kids far from the culture of Hollywood.

“I was worried about raising our kids in L.A.,” Clooney said. “I don’t want them to be walking around worried about paparazzi. I don’t want them being compared to somebody else’s famous kids.”

Clooney is not the only American film industry figure seeking French citizenship. The US director Jim Jarmusch, whose latest feature, Father Mother Sister Brother won the Venice International Film Festival, told France Inter radio on Friday that he also plans to apply for French citizenship.

“I would like a place that will allow me to escape from the United States,” Jarmusch said.