As if we needed another reason to love George Clooney, the actor sat down with Esquire magazine and gave an honest, classy, and often hilarious interview. George covered everything from his feud with Russell Crowe, to why he loathes Twitter and how he uses Brad PItt in a string of funny but kind of mean practical jokes.
George’s Leonardo DiCaprio basketball story: Clooney suggested they might play [basketball] someday. DiCaprio said sure, but felt compelled to add, “You know, we’re pretty serious.” They played at a neighborhood court. Clooney shared, “You know, I can play. I’m not great, by any means, but I played high school basketball, and I know I can play. I also know that you don’t talk sh-t unless you can play. And the thing about playing Leo is you have all these guys talking sh-t. We get there, and there’s this guy, Danny A I think his name is. Danny A is this club kid from New York. And he comes up to me and says, ‘We played once at Chelsea Piers. I kicked your ass.’ I said, ‘I’ve only played at Chelsea Piers once in my life and ran the table. So if we played, you didn’t kick anybody’s ass.’ And so then we’re watching them warm up, and they’re doing this weave around the court, and one of the guys I play with says, ‘You know we’re going to kill these guys, right?’ Because they can’t play at all. We’re all like fifty years old, and we beat them three straight: 11–0, 11–0, 11–0. And the discrepancy between their game and how they talked about their game made me think of how important it is to have someone in your life to tell you what’s what. I’m not sure if Leo has someone like that.”
The Russell Crowe argument: “The truth is that [Crowe] did send me a book of poems to apologize for insulting the sh-t out of me, which he did. He picked a fight with me. He started it for no reason at all. He put out this thing saying, ‘George Clooney, Harrison Ford, and Robert De Niro are sellouts.’ And I put out a statement saying, ‘He’s probably right. And I’m glad he told us, ’cause Bob and Harrison and I were also thinking about starting a band, which would also fall under the heading of bad use of celebrity.’ And that’s when he really went off on me. ‘Who the f–k does this guy think he is? He’s a Frank Sinatra wannabe.’ He really went after me. And so I sent him a note going, ‘Dude, the only people who succeed when two famous people are fighting is People magazine. What the f–k is wrong with you?’ Then I had Syriana and Good Night, and Good Luck, and he was gonna see me at the Golden Globes ’cause he was nominated for Cinderella Man. So he sends me a disc of his music and a thing of his poetry. I think he said, ‘I was all misquoted,’ and I was like, ‘Yeah, yeah. Whatever.’”
On Twitter: “If you’re famous, I don’t—for the life of me—I don’t understand why any famous person would ever be on Twitter. Why on God’s green earth would you be on Twitter? Because first of all, the worst thing you can do is make yourself more available, right? Because you’re going to be available to everybody. But also Twitter. So one drunken night, you come home and you’ve had two too many drinks and you’re watching TV and somebody pisses you off, and you go ‘Ehhhhh’ and fight back. And you go to sleep, and you wake up in the morning and your career is over. Or you’re an a–hole. Or all the things you might think in the quiet of your drunken evening are suddenly blasted around the entire world before you wake up.”
He loves Brad Pitt: “For a long time now, Brad has been the biggest movie star in the world. He’s bigger than me, bigger than DiCaprio. And I really admire how he deals with that. It’s not easy for him. But he tries to be the most honest version of Brad Pitt that he can be. And he also remains unavailable. He’s still a giant movie star because you can’t get to him. That doesn’t mean that I don’t think of him as incredibly talented and smart and all those things. But you also can’t get to him.”
George loves Brad so much that he plays practical jokes – using Brad’s name. As a joke a few years ago, he had some stationery made up with Brad’s letterhead. He then sent a book about acting and accents to Meryl Streep, with a note that, “Dear Meryl, this book really helped me with my accent for Troy. I hope it helps you too.” He signed it “Brad Pitt.” Then he sent another letter to Don Cheadle on “Pitt’s” stationery. Don has always wanted to play Miles Davis. George’s fake letter informed him that Brad’s production company had acquired the rights to Davis’s life story. The letter said that Brad wanted to case him in the movie – as Charlie Parker. I bet Clooney is still looking over his shoulder, waiting for the payback to those pranks!
Photos by Wenn.com & Esquire
