Sandra Bullock’s son Louis may have a future in casting. He’s selected Bullock’s Gravity co-star, George Clooney, as a positive male role model. During press conferences at the Toronto International Film Festival, Bullock revealed, “My son thinks he’s (Clooney) a very cool dude.”

Louis, 3 ½ years old, will apparently seek out George and other men involved in the film for a little male-bonding-time, leaving doting mom Bullock to the side until they’re finished. “If there was a choice between me and George and Alfonso (Cuarόn), my son will leave to go with George and the guys.” Cuarόn is the film’s director and writer.

Bullock, 49, is appreciative of the 52-year-old’s willingness to indulge Louis, “George is a good man, and I’m really proud to have known him for this time and the human being he’s become… He’s a good egg.”

Though the superstars have been long acquainted—pictured here at the Venice Film Festival—this is their first film foray together. “George and I have known each other for over 20 years,” Bullock says, explaining that they share a group of friends since they exited college and, “since we had no work.”

Bullock also opened up about the experience filming the space thriller, during which she spent long, lonely hours by herself on a sound stage surrounded only by cameras. She said she got to be best friends with the sound man who, “If I was cracking under the pressure he would radio someone to go get Louis to come in.”

Gravity premiered Sunday at the Festival to rave reviews and awards predictions—as have other TIFF premieres, Dallas Buyers Club for one.

Clooney was conspicuously absent from the TIFF 2013, at which he’s been a regular installment over preceding years, promoting such films as Up in the Air, The Descendants and Argo. This year, the star is busy filming Tomorrowland, a new Walt Disney Pictures sci-fi mystery by Brad Bird (The Incredibles, Ratatouille, Mission: Impossible—Ghost Protocol).

[Image via Venice Film Festival Official Facebook.]