When Steven Soderbergh tried and failed to play George Clooney at his own game
George Clooney is famed for his smouldering stare and dazzling on-screen charisma that has charmed global audiences. Through iconic performances in Ocean’s Eleven, Gravity and Michael Clayton, the actor became a once-in-a-lifetime movie star, working with directors such as the Coen brothers, Wes Anderson and Alfonso Cuarón.
However, over the years, it is with Steven Soderbergh that Clooney has built his strongest and most enduring creative partnership. Clooney starred in Soderbergh’s celebrated heist franchise as well as Solaris and Out of Sight, with the duo displaying a remarkable cinematic synergy that has stood the test of time.
Despite their strong collaborative relationship, though, it has to be noted that the pair also get along on another level: they became notorious for engaging in a long prank war.
The actor has become somewhat infamous for his pranks over the years, with some of his co-stars taking issue with this tendency but others listing the element of surprise as another reason to enjoy working with him. However, through repeated collaborations with Soderbergh, the actor has been able to expand on this mischievous quality and be given a taste of his own medicine.
While shooting Oceans Eleven, Soderbergh decided to return the favour and play some practical jokes on Clooney. Thankfully, the shoot came at the perfect time, as the actor had recently been announced as the sexiest man of the year. The director decided to prank him by getting each crew member to wear T-shirts with the ‘sexiest man alive’ on them. The actor was amused but decided to get his own back on the director with his own prank.
Soderbergh described: “Then, like two weeks later, I found the wallet of the gaffer on the street in Miami where we were shooting. I was standing right next to the car where George and Ving Rhames were sitting in, and I said, ‘Geezus, I found Dwight’s wallet sitting on the sidewalk here. I wonder what we should do with it. Maybe we should do something with it’. And he says, ‘No, you don’t want to do that. It’s somebody’s wallet, ya know that’s serious shit’. So he said, ‘Give it to me, I’ll give it to him’, and I said alright. So, a day or two goes by and I go up to Dwight and I say, ‘Did you get your wallet?’ and he just looks at me like what are you talking about. I said, ‘I found your wallet on the street and gave it to George’. And he says, ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about, I lost my wallet, why didn’t you just give it to me? I don’t have it’.”
Naturally, Soderbergh was confused by and felt guilty that this man hadn’t been given his wallet. But, alas, it had all been orchestrated by Clooney, with the director saying, “Somehow… George had orchestrated and gotten me convinced that not only had Dwight not gotten his wallet, but that he had somehow misplaced it. The bottom line was, I mobilized like half the crew to tear the set apart looking for Dwight’s wallet, and this went on for three hours. While we were trying to shoot I had half the crew trying to find Dwight’s wallet, and this just went on and on. Finally, Dwight walked up and said, ‘You know, I’ve had my wallet the whole time. George gave it to me the minute you had walked away, and this was all orchestrated to make you look like an idiot’. He had me going. He knows how to tell everybody what role to play and what performance to pitch, and really had me going”.
His ability to find fun on a film set and bring people together, even if for a silly joke, sets him apart from many other actors. He most recently starred in Wolfs opposite Brad Pitt, and who knows if he carried this mischievous habit onto this production, but perhaps we’ll hear more about his recent pranking exploits very soon.
