After divorcing his first wife in 1993, actor George Clooney was the quintessential eligible bachelor: dashing good looks, a successful Hollywood career, and plenty of beautiful women to go around. That was until he met Amal Alamuddin in June 2013 through a mutual friend at one of his house parties. Clooney and the human rights lawyer hit it off and exchanged emails, which soon became a romantic exchange. By September 2014, the two had tied the knot in a ceremony in Italy. By June 2017, four years after they had met, Amal Clooney gave birth to twins, Ella and Alexander George.

A new family meant a new perspective, and a shift away from Hollywood. The Clooneys now make their home in the French countryside, away from the hubbub of fame and fortune in LA. “Yeah, we’re very lucky. You know, we live on a farm in France. A good portion of my life growing up was on a farm, and as a kid I hated the whole idea of it. But now, for them, it’s like — they’re not on their iPads, you know? They have dinner with grown-ups and have to take their dishes in. They have a much better life,” Clooney told Esquire. Ella and Alexander make an appearance in the interview; Alexander dressed as a police officer as the 8-year-olds get ready to set up a jail for incoming guests.

The move to France had been for the children, with Clooney “worried” about what being raised in LA would be like for them. “I was worried about raising our kids in L. A., in the culture of Hollywood. I felt like they were never going to get a fair shake at life. France—they kind of don’t give a sh– about fame. I don’t want them to be walking around worried about paparazzi. I don’t want them being compared to somebody else’s famous kids.” It’s a fair concern given how much interest children of the rich and famous draw upon themselves. Recent pictures of North West, the 12-year-old daughter of Kim Kardashian and ex-husband Ye West, wearing a corset top on a family vacation set the internet abuzz about Kardashian’s parenting skills and sexualizing the mature-looking North.

In addition to living away from the spotlight, while Clooney’s career has left him more than capable of affording every luxury and having every repair done by professionals, the handy man addressed how it was important for his children to see things like him fixing a pool cover. “I see this one piece of plastic that feels like it shouldn’t be there. I got a screwdriver and I yanked it out. It was a broken piece of plastic. I pull it out, screw the thing back on. I went up and hit the button, and it worked. And I’m telling you, I felt like a king! The kids are cheering, and I’m in the pool holding up the piece of plastic,” he said. “It’s important to me that they can survive.”

Clooney has opened up about how becoming a husband and father has changed him from his bachelor days. “[I thought] I’m gonna work, I’ve got great friends, my life is full, I’m doing well,” he said in a past interview. “And I didn’t know how un-full it was until I met Amal. And then everything changed. And I was like, ‘Oh, actually, this has been a huge empty space.’ … I’d never been in the position where someone else’s life was infinitely more important to me than my own.”