George Clooney is an avid prankster, but he apparently isn’t so enthusiastic about being the prankee.
Matt Damon recalled seeing the actor the “maddest I’ve ever seen him” after he was the victim of a dayslong prank orchestrated by Brad Pitt while the three stars were filming Ocean’s Twelve together in Italy and staying with Clooney at his villa in Lake Como.
Pitt sent out letters in Italian to Italian crew members as if they were from Clooney’s team, directing them not to look Clooney in the eye or refer to him as George, Damon recalled during a sit-down on CNN’s Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace.
“You may call him only Mr. Clooney or Mr. Ocean,” the letter apparently instructed staffers.
For a few days, Clooney, whom Damon described as being “the life of the set,” had trouble figuring out what was going on when he greeted co-workers.
“He comes in and he’s like, something’s weird and he can’t figure it out,” Damon recalled.
When Clooney finally realised what was happening, “he came home, and that’s the maddest I’ve ever seen him,” Damon recalled.
“Brad sat there and he just said ... just leave everybody else around me out of it,” Damon said. “Leave other civilians out of it.”
The memo was circulated and eventually reported by the Italian press as if it were real, according to Vulture, which once compiled several decades worth of Clooney’s pranks.
Clooney apparently retaliated by putting silly bumper stickers on Pitt’s car, including one that read “Small Penis On Board.”
Damon said he was once the target of a Clooney prank while they were shooting The Monuments Men together. Clooney had the wardrobe team take in Damon’s costume slightly each week so he would think he was putting on weight.
But Damon never struck back.
“He totally did that,” Damon said. “I’ve never tried to get George back for anything because I just know the countermeasures are going to be so severe.”