George Clooney shared that his final moments with his late sister Ada Zeidler reminded the actor to always “seek the joy out” of life.
“My sister, who I was very close to, got cancer last year and she died very quickly,” the “Ocean’s Eleven” star said while receiving the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement during the 2026 Venice Film Festival last week.
“I was with her when she died, and there was this feeling being with her, holding her hand when she died, understanding how brief all this is.”
The “ER” alum said that while sitting with her as she was dying, it felt like “minutes ago that she and I were both kids together.”
“Minutes ago holding hands as little kids. And now, you know … time goes so fast. All of this, and so we need to find nothing but joy.”
Clooney continued, “Find joy in the things that make [us] miserable. You have to seek the joy out. You have to demand it, and you have to make sure that you demand it of yourself. That’s it.”
The actor noted that he doesn’t know what happens after we die, since “nobody [he knows] has yet to come back and tell [him] exactly how it works out.”
“So I know in this life you have to seek joy and you have to try to find it for your family and your friends,” he concluded.
Last December, Clooney announced the death of his sister. She was 65.
“My sister, Ada, was my hero,” he told People at the time. “She faced down cancer with courage and humor. I’ve never met anyone so brave,” he continued. “[My wife] Amal and I will miss her terribly.”
Zeidler was a former elementary art teacher and high school National Merit Scholar. She grew up alongside her brother in Augusta, Kentucky.
She lived her life out of the spotlight, but was seen attending her little brother’s lavish Venice, Italy wedding to human rights attorney Amal Clooney in 2014.
George, 65, previously gushed about his tight bond with his sister. “My sister, I’m very close to,” he told “CBS This Morning” back in 2015.