George Clooney has shared the advice Paul Newman once gave him about how to handle a life lived in the spotlight.

In a recent interview with The New York Times, the 64-year-old met with his co-star in his new film Jay Kelly, Adam Sandler, and revealed that during a conversation in the late 1990s, the legendary actor gave him a piece of advice that changed his life.

“I’m not as good at ‘disappearing’ as you are,” Clooney told Sandler. “I tend to think, ‘If I go out, that’s another hour of talking to people.’ Paul Newman actually talked to me about that,” he added.

He continued: “When I first met him, he was at Warner Bros. studios shooting Message in a Bottle, and I was on ER. Newman was sitting outside smoking a cigarette, so I pulled up in one of those golf carts and said, ‘Hi, I just wanted to say hello.’”

Clooney explained that Newman “had no idea who I was” at first, but soon realized he was also an actor. “Everyone who drove by in a golf cart kept shouting, ‘Hey, George,’ ‘George!’ So slowly he figured out that I was somehow doing well in the business,” Clooney recalled.

Newman advised him not to withdraw in an effort to protect his privacy. “And then he says to me, ‘George, don’t let them keep you locked up at home.’ He meant that tendency to isolate yourself because you’re trying to hold on to a little bit of privacy. At the time, my instinct was to stay in, but when I heard Newman say that, it immediately made sense,” Clooney said.