George Clooney talks marriage, quarantine and gifting $1 million to pals
Did George Clooney really give his best buds a million bucks in cash each in 2013?
The Oscar-winning actor and producer got candid about that rumor and more in the cover story of GQ's new Man of the Year issue.
The answer about the cash is yes.
"[O]ver a period of 35 years [they] helped me in one way or another. I've slept on their couches when I was broke," the 59-year-old explained. "I just thought basically if I get hit by a bus, they're all in the will. So why the f--- am I waiting to get hit by a bus?"
Clooney detailed the "Ocean's Eleven"-like scene of picking up the cash in a florist truck and later presenting a Tumi bag with $1 million each to 14 friends.
Not that money means his life has been without problems. A head injury on the set of 2005's "Syriana" left Clooney in agonizing pain. Then in 2018, he suffered a serious motorcycle accident in Italy. As he and producing partner Grant Heslov waited for an ambulance, looky-loos were filming him on the pavement.
"I'm not a cynical guy," Clooney said. "But I'll never forget the moment that what I thought might be my last few moments was for everyone else a piece of entertainment."
As a result of both incidents, Clooney has been in "constant discomfort" for 15 years, he said.
Like millions of us, Clooney's been sheltering in place at home lately. "I cut my own hair, and I cut my kids' hair, and I'm mopping it and vacuuming and doing the laundry," he declared, adding, "I feel like my mother in 1964. You know, I understand why she burned her bra."
And though once an avowed bachelor, Clooney says his marriage to human rights attorney Amal Clooney has changed his life. Prior to meeting her, he said he thought, "I'm gonna work, I've got great friends, my life is full, I'm doing well."
"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,'" he said. "I'd never been in the position where someone else's life was infinitely more important to me than my own. You know? And then tack on two more individuals [his three-year-old twins], who are small and have to be fed ..."
And he's never been happier.
