I love George Clooney. But we need a new leading man.

I’ve been going to the movies all my life; I make no apologies for that. I’m proud of what movies represent and what they stand for. As part of my movie-going and supporting my favorites, I’ve rewatched some of them countless times. Intolerable Cruelty, Burn after Reading, Oceans 11. Last month, I rewatched Oceans 12. I say all of this just to express how much I believe in the film industry and how profound I find this moment.

I love George Clooney. As an actor. As a director and as a humanitarian. I want to be his friend and I believe in him. Believe in his character. Believe in his morals. In recent years he has won many awards for his work.

But he can’t win the battle against time. None of us can. It’s devastating to have to say this, but the George Clooney I’ve seen at Nespresso over the last two years was not the “most handsome man” of 2014.

He wasn’t even the George Clooney of Nespresso in 2015. He was the same man we all saw in Batman and Robin.

Was he tired? Yes. A cold? Maybe. But everyone needs to stop telling us that millions of people didn’t see what we just saw. We’re all so terrified by the prospect of another reboot of “Oceans” that we’ve chosen to ignore every warning sign. Opening with “Good Night, and Good Luck” only reinforces what we saw the week before. As fans of good, quality entertainment, we collectively hold our breath or turn down the volume when we see the George Clooney we respect walk onto the Broadway stage.

Is it fair to bring these things up? It has to be fair. It’s about age. That’s all. But it’s also not something that can be undone. We won’t see any more plays and films with this actor. Moreover, he won’t win the Oscars and he won’t lose the Golden Globes. That’s not just my opinion; that’s the opinion of every neighbor and my spouse that I’ve spoken to privately. Every single one, regardless of what he or she says publicly.

We like to talk about how the Hollywood elite have ceded all the power and attributes that made them so impressive with MGM and RKO to a single person who wants to hold on to his acting career, and yet most moviegoers prefer to wait and see if the dam breaks. But the dam has broken. We can bury our heads in the sand and pray for a miracle at the Academy Awards and at the box office, or we can tell the truth.

It is disingenuous at best to claim that demographics have already spoken through ticket purchases and therefore blockbusters will rule when we have just received new and disturbing information. We all believe that Hollywood abandons actors when they turn 63. This, too, is new and disturbing information. Top actors – Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Tom Hanks – and groomsmen, camera crews and other film industry personnel who are faced with losing the Oscars must ask that actor to voluntarily step down.

All the horror stories we’re being told about what might happen next are simply not true. Most likely, the revenue from the previous Clooney productions could be channeled into better films and plays. The new content would not be missed on Netflix. We, the moviegoers, have a very exciting choice. We don’t anoint actors or succumb to a cult of personality; we vote for them with our money. We can well imagine that a group of several strong actors will step forward and explain to us why they are best suited for the roles in upcoming productions and address some of the deeply disturbing trends we’re seeing with the remakes of “Ocean” and “Nespresso.”

Let’s listen to the stories of Cillian Murphy, Emma Stone, Da’Vine, Joy Randolph, Ke Huy Quan, Daniel Scheinert, Daniel Kwan and others. Let’s agree that actors, directors and producers should not attack each other, but instead focus on what will drive box office numbers in the short time we have left. Then we can plan and get a picture of the next summer blockbuster season.

Would it be chaotic? Yes. Film and art are chaotic. But would it liven up our parties and wake up ticket buyers who had checked out long before the nominees were announced? It absolutely would. The quick port of call to fame and fortune would be an advantage for us, but I’m not quite sure how. It would give us a chance to showcase the future without so much competitive research and negative campaigning that comes with those ridiculously long and expensive awards seasons. This can be an exciting time for movies, theater and art, as we’ve just seen with the French film industry, which has put Gérard Depardieu aside and put his stranglehold on leading roles on hold to save us from boredom.

George Clooney is an actor; he rebooted the Oceans franchise in 2001. We don’t need him to do that in Good Night, and Good Luck.