The cruel George Clooney prank that toyed with Matt Damon’s insecurities: “Ugh, this is weird”
George Clooney is a notorious prankster. He once phoned Tom Cruise pretending to be Brad Pitt saying he wanted to do an Interview with the Vampire sequel, only this time he wanted to play Lestat. He and a bunch of other actors once moved Richard Kind’s bed into a casino whilst he was sleeping in it. He would routinely throw realistic prop kittens into the street to freak people out during the filming of One Fine Day. Basically, he’s a bit of a jerk, and we love him for it.
One person who knows the full extent of Clooney’s japes is Matt Damon. The two have starred together in a few movies, and the older actor has often gone out of his way to make the younger one’s life a living hell. For example, when the two were working on the 2014 movie The Monuments Men, Clooney decided to mess with one of Damon’s biggest fears.
At a press junket for the movie, Damon revealed to People that Clooney made it seem like he was putting on weight. “He took in my wardrobe by an eighth of an inch, every other day,” he said. “This was a job where I would go back to New York, where I was living with my family, and I would come back. And then I’d go back to New York, and every time I came back my pants were tighter, and I was like, ‘Ugh, this is weird. I’ve been going to the gym!’”
The Monuments Men, which Clooney also directed, is about a group of soldiers during World War II whose job it is to rescue priceless works of art from being destroyed by the Nazis. Damon was just one of many big names to appear in the film, including Hugh Bonneville, Jean Dujardin, John Goodman, Cate Blanchett, and Bill Murray. It did ok at the box office, raking in $156million from a budget of around half that, but was met with mixed reviews by critics.
Despite his attempts to give him a psychological breakdown, Damon spoke highly of having Clooney as his boss. “George is obscenely talented as a director, I have to say,” his Ocean’s Eleven co-star remarked. “It can be a little annoying being his pal because it’s kind of like God said, ‘Maybe this time I’ll just give one of them everything. Let’s make him handsome, and as he gets older he’ll even look better!’” Whether Damon truly meant this or was just trying to butter Clooney up to avoid any future pranks remains a mystery.
This was not the first time Clooney went out of his way to embarrass Jason Bourne. Speaking with Radio 1’s Ali Plumb, he revealed that he and Brad Pitt once waged a painstaking campaign to earn Damon the honour of ‘Sexiest Man Alive’. “We took out full-page ads in the trades,” he said. “With a picture of Matt Damon in the Speedo that he wore in The Talented Mr. Ripley and said ‘For your consideration for Sexiest Man Alive.’”
The title of ‘Sexiest Man Alive’ has been awarded by People since 1985. Clooney is a two-time recipient of the honour, having cinched it in 1997 and 2006. Pitt is also a double-winner, capturing the title in 1995 and 2000. Eventually, after two years of his friends’ advertising, Damon was finally added to this illustrious group in 2007. Nice to know all that bullying paid off.
