A ‘day of mourning’ has been called following the news that George Clooney, the definitive silver fox, has dyed his hair. A beacon of hope for grey-haired men around the world since 2009, Clooney was recently spotted with suspiciously brown locks during an outing with his wife Amal Clooney.

He has already been called ‘unrecognisable’ online, which is somewhat ironic given that the picture in question shows Clooney from behind entering a car.

Fear not, though, the Hollywood star is not entirely abandoning his roots. Apparently, he has dyed his hair ahead of his upcoming Broadway debut in Good Night, And Good Luck – an adaptation of the film he wrote, directed and starred in in 2005. He plays the role of Edward R. Murrow, a famous journalist, and wanted to give the character a ‘slightly younger look’.

However, he is far from thrilled about his new do. During a recent interview with the New York Times the actor said, ‘My wife is going to hate it because nothing makes you look older than when an older guy dyes his hair.’

‘My kids are going to just laugh at me nonstop,’ he added, referring to the couple’s twins, Alexander and Ella, who were born in 2017.

In fact, Clooney is making his disdain for his brunette makeover well known. In other recent pictures, he is seen walking around New York wearing a tweed fedora to cover his hair altogether.

Despite being known for his silver hair, the Ticket to Paradise star has had a complicated relationship with the shade over the years, once admitting to GQ that he thought ‘Jesus, who’s the old, grey-haired guy?’ when he first started turning grey.

In 2020, he also admitted to CBS Sunday Morning that he has been ‘cutting [his] own hair for 25 years’. Adding, ‘Look, my hair is really like straw, and so it’s easy to cut. You can’t really make too many mistakes.’

He attributes his cut to ‘a thing called a Flowbee’ which comes with a vacuum cleaner and clippers and allows him to polish up his trim ‘in literally two minutes’. It’s a device that gained popularity through infomercials in the 1980s, but Clooney insists it still works for him. ‘It requires two lungs because one is the vacuum and one is the trimmer,’ he told Entertainment Tonight in December 2020. ‘I think my wife a few years ago, she came in and saw me use it – it makes this sound, it sounds like a hurricane – and she goes, “What are you doing?” I go, “I’m cutting me hair.”’

It’s difficult to believe that an A-list Hollywood actor of his stature really runs over his skull with a razor in less time than it takes to brush his teeth, but what do we know?

We can next expect to see Clooney star in Jay Kelly, a coming-of-age film on Netflix that follows two middle-aged friends as they rediscover their youthful spirit during a chaotic weekend reunion. Don’t worry, Clooney’s signature silver strands are restored in the role – to the relief of his many admirers, and his fellow grey-haired fans. The film, which is directed by Noah Baumbach, also features Adam Sandler, Laura Dern, Riley Keough and Billy Crudup and is set to be released on the streaming platform on 10 March.

His priority for now, though, is Good Night, And Good Luck. Clooney has said the stage will be transformed into a newsroom with 30 monitors moving around showing old footage. David Cromer, the award-winning director, recruited the production designer David Bengali to ‘recreate what it’s like to watch television being made’.

Unfavourable brown hair aside, Clooney is apparently feeling nervous about his turn on stage. ‘I’m terrified of it,’ he told the New York Times. ‘Are you kidding? I’m doing 11 monologues. When you get older, your recall isn’t the same. When I was doing “ER”, it was 12 pages of medical dialogue. You look at it in the morning and you say, “OK, let’s go!” Now you get older and you’re going, “What’s wrong with me? Well don’t think any wine tonight.”’

The film was originally written as a critique of the press ahead of the invasion of Iraq in 2003. At the time, Clooney called out President George W. Bush for his decision to go to war and was called a traitor for doing so. ‘It was a pretty tough time,’ he admitted. Adding that ‘we need the press’ because ‘government unchecked is a problem’.

It certainly sounds as though Clooney and the rest of the cast have some weight subjects to contend with on stage – ones that are particularly topical in the current political climate. Let’s hope the script and their performances outshine Clooney’s ‘transformational’ brown hair (and that he grows it back out to grey as soon as the run ends).