George Clooney writes Parkland students: ‘You make me proud of my country again’

Actor George Clooney penned a letter to students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, saying that he and his wife, Amal, are grateful for their actions and support their march against gun violence.

“You make me proud of my country again,” he wrote.

Clooney’s note was published in The Guardian on Friday, the day before thousands of students are expected to march in Washington, D.C., in support of gun control and school safety after the mass shooting at Stoneman Douglas. The staff of the high school’s paper, The Eagle Eye, took over The Guardian’s website to cover the march, organized by students from the school.

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Clooney turned down an interview with the staff of the paper, saying in the letter that he thinks it is important for them to share the stories of other young people instead.

“We both feel very strongly that this is your march. Your moment,” Clooney wrote.

“Young people are taking it to the adults and that has been your most effective tool. The fact that no adults will speak on the stage in D.C. is a powerful message to the world that if we can’t do something about gun violence then you will,” he wrote.

He added that anyone the students ask to interview “would feel proud to be interviewed by you,” but that he thinks it is “so much more effective if it’s young people.”

The Guardian’s editors in chief said they also requested interviews with Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who both accepted.

“It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity to point to this moment and say it belongs to you,” Clooney wrote to the students. “You certainly should do what you want but that would be my hope for you.”

The Clooneys donated $500,000 to the March for Our Lives effort in February and plan to march on Saturday. Several other celebrities, including Jimmy Fallon and Lin-Manuel Miranda, have also said they will be present.