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George Clooney is a master storyteller. We all know it, but the Oscar-winner cemented his status while sitting down with GQ this week. The 59-year-old broke down some of his most iconic roles, telling engaging behind-the-scenes tales along the way. One of our favorites came up when he was asked about the Ocean’s 11 trilogy.
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“There’s a fun thing about that gang, there was literally no ego involved in it,” he said of the glittering cast, which included Matt Damon, Don Cheadle, Andy García, Bernie Mac, Julia Roberts and Brad Pitt . The latter played a hilarious prank on George while shooting the sequel Ocean’s 12 in his hometown.
“We shot some of it in Lake Como, which was my hometown,” George said of the elite area in Italy. “Brad sent out a memo to all the people in the town - my town, I’d lived there for years. He had it posted on like telephone poles, and said: ‘the movie is coming to town and please only address George Clooney... in his character name of Danny Ocean and don’t look him right in the eyes.’ So, the papers was like, ‘El Divo! George Clooney is El Divo!’” He added: “It was a horrible story, which I later got him back for.”
Overall he loved working on the franchise, saying: “There was no actor in those scenes trying to steal scenes, they’re all kind of actively trying to hand it to the other guy. There was such generosity of spirit.”
George also touched on working with our favorite Latina powerhouse Jennifer Lopez in the crime comedy Out of Sight. “Every actress in town read for that part,” he said, touching how difficult it was to cast the role of Karen. “Part of it was that she had to be sexy, but you also believed that she could shoot you and kill you.” The actor said: “Jennifer had all of that. She was really good. She was wonderful in the film.”
“She’s had an amazing career and gone on to do so many things,” George said, calling JLo an entertainer through and through, “but if you look back - that’s a performance that really stands out for her.”