George Clooney has confirmed the long standing rumour that he once gifted 14 of his best friends 1 million dollars each.
The story first came to public light in 2017 when his friend Rande Gerber talked about the generous act.
Now, in an interview with GQ magazine, Clooney talked about the story and confirmed it for the first time. The actor said “Amal (Clooney’s wife) and I had just met, but we weren’t dating at all. I was a single guy. All of us were ageing. I was 52 or something. And most of my friends are older than me”.
He revealed that the story took place in 2013 when he said “Because (the film Gravity’s producers) didn’t want to pay us, they gave us percentages of the movie, ’cause they thought it was gonna be a flop, and that ended up being a very good deal”.
“And I thought, what I do have are these guys who’ve all, over a period of 35 years, helped me in one way or another. I’ve slept on their couches when I was broke. They loaned me money when I was broke. They helped me when I needed help over the years. And I’ve helped them over the years. We’re all good friends”.
He went on to add “And I thought, you know, without them I don’t have any of this. And we’re all really close, and I just thought basically if I get hit by a bus, they’re all in the will. So why the fuck am I waiting to get hit by a bus?”.
Clooney then described the process of getting 14 million dollars in cash to his friends. “We brought it up, and I bought 14 Tumi bags, and then I packed in a million bucks, cash, which isn’t as much as you think it is, weight-wise, into these Tumi bags”
Over the next few days, Clooney invited his friends and gave more detail about the motivation behind the act. “And I just held up a map and I just pointed to all the places I got to go in the world and all the things I’ve gotten to see because of them. And I said, ‘How do you repay people like that?”
“And I said, ‘Oh, well: How about a million bucks?’ And the fun part about it was: That was the 27th, the 28th of September. A year later, on the 27th of September, just by happenstance, was the day I got married”
George Clooney does not regret his decision at all. He told the story of how he ran into a richer person at a Las Vegas hotel and said “I remember talking to one really rich asshole who I ran into in a hotel in Vegas—certainly a lot richer than I am. And I remember the story about the cash had come out, and he was like, ‘Why would you do that?’ And I was like, ‘Why wouldn’t you do that, you schmuck?'”
It was announced earlier this year that Clooney is pairing up with Bob Dylan to create a baseball inspired movie. You can read Radio Nova’s report on it here.
