LOS ANGELES??I?m in the middle of one right now,? George Clooney, Hollywood?s top practical joker, said with a smile and in a conspiratorial tone about his latest prank. In a recent press con for his new film, ?The American,? a routine question about who his next prank victim was, yielded this playful revelation.
?I can?t tell you but it?s one of my best ever,? George enthused about his ?project? to punk someone. ?I?m really excited about it. Hopefully, I can pull this off for about two years and then I will come to you. It will give you a lot of fun. Maybe I?ll even have a slide show for you. It might be that good.?
A prank that lasts two years? The man sure is a serious prankster. ?I don?t want to give any information that could make them start looking,? he answered when asked whether the one being punk?d is either one of his pals, Brad Pitt or Matt Damon. ?But it?s on someone who deserves it. Let?s just say that.? With a sly grin, he added: ?Someone who earned my wrath over the last couple of years. I?ve been working on it and it?s good fun, actually.?
Weight jokes
?I have done other evil things,? George quipped. In one of our previous interviews with him, George revealed how he punk?d Matt Damon. It happened when Matt was staying at George?s villa in Italy. To prepare for a role, Matt was dieting assiduously to lose weight during that time. He stuck to his diet and could only look in envy when his host and guests savored Italian cuisine at lunches and dinners.
But to Matt?s consternation, his clothes were getting tighter each day. Matt was perplexed about why he was seemingly gaining weight despite all the dieting and exercising he was doing. It turned out that our famous prankster asked a tailor to come to his house and gradually tighten Matt?s clothes.
The star also bared a joke he recently played on Alexander Payne, the director of his upcoming movie, ?The Descendants.? He said: ?Alexander came to my house to spend three weeks editing the film and to spend some time in Italy with the people he was traveling with. He brought just a carry-on bag. I got a 50-pound weight and put it in his bag. He got into the plane. He called from London where the airport people stopped him and asked, ?Why do you have this 50-pound weight in your bag?? He wrote and called me a f***er.? With a satisfied grin, George dished, ?Any time you can do it to make their trip a little more miserable, I?m happy.?
In ?The American,? a suspense thriller directed by Anton Corbijn, the perennial bachelor has a rare steamy love scene with Italian actress Violante Placido. ?She?s going to be a big star,? he said of the sultry Violante. ?She?s very talented. Her father (Michele Placido) is a big actor and director in Italy. She?s got it in her genes. I think she?s also a singer. There?s an opportunity for her to have a really good amount of success worldwide.?
Tricky love scene
?The love scene is a tricky thing to do,? added George, who plays an assassin in the film that?s loosely adapted from Martin Booth?s novel, ?A Very Private Gentleman.? ?It has to be shot well and carefully. It seemed really about the desperation of the character. I watch those things and I don?t really see myself. I just see a movie. I?m lucky enough that I can divorce myself from the actual or I would probably start dyeing my hair and s**t. I?m aging in front of everybody. I don?t mind it. I?m perfectly comfortable with getting older.?
Turning 50 next year, George clarified that he plays the patriarch in Payne?s film. ?I?m the father,? he said. ?I?m past the brother part. They don?t let me do that one anymore. Now I?m just the father guy. I don?t know when that happened but it?s happening now.?
The actor sounded unperturbed about his age. After all, he?s at the peak of his game. ?I?m 49 and so there?s not much left of the romantic leads you?d want to see,? he casually remarked. ?I?ve been trying to do as much character roles as I can. I thought my roles in ?Up in the Air? and ?Michael Clayton? were a mixture of those things. A lot of the things I did weren?t massively successful and because of that, I didn?t get pigeonholed into something where they said you can only do comedies or you can only do drama. I?ve had a lot of trying to keep the budgets down on the films that I do.?
For now, there?s no follow-up to the ?Ocean?s?? franchise in his future. ?I think we rode that one into the ground,? he admitted. ?Bernie (Mac) is gone. It was a fun, sweet group. We really enjoyed each other?s company. It just seems like the series had its moment. We shouldn?t be doing ?Ocean?s 69,? where we?re all wheeling ourselves into a room.?
He thought doing ?Ocean?s 12? was a mistake. ?We all felt the same way. We got lost in the idea of trying to service all of the characters,? he confessed. ?That happens with sequels. The reason we did ?13? was because we wanted another crack at it, and tried to do it the way we should have done it with ?12.? I really liked ?13.? ?
An A-lister who can strike up genuine conversations, not empty or bored patter, with journalists, fans and people he meets, George was asked about his accessible image. Of course, he joked first about how he keeps the crowds at bay. ?I try to stab them with a pen when they first come up,? he cracked. ?The first one that you stab bleeds. That slows the rest of them down.?
Here?s his explanation as to why he is approachable: ?My father (Nick Clooney, a journalist and politician) was in the microcosm of Cincinnati, Ohio. He was a big star. So I grew up being watched from the time I was a little kid. I was in a fishbowl. I watched people being very kind to my dad over a long period. I always had a pretty good understanding of a couple of things. One was how to treat people but also to understand the effect of seeing someone famous in person.?
He remembered an encounter with Raymond Burr, who played Perry Mason: ?He came to our hometown in Kentucky. I had seen him only in ?Ironside? and ?Perry Mason.? I was about 12 years old. I just walked around, following him all the time, staring at him and going ?Raymond Burr.? He was like, ?Get the hell away from me.? But I remember being fascinated at seeing someone famous. They?re usually smaller or older in person. So I always understand there?s that fascination of seeing somebody in person. I have a pretty good [amount of] patience toward that because the fans have been very nice to me over the years. It?s not so hard to do.?
But what makes him lose his cool? ?Injustice can wear on me,? said the UN Messenger of Peace, who is still actively involved in helping stop the genocide in Sudan and Rwanda and has raised millions of dollars for the Haiti disaster relief. ?It almost always involves someone I know getting hurt along the way,? he explained.
Inevitable quip
He mused: ?In general, I?ve a pretty good life. I have great friends and family. I?m making the kind of movies I want to make. I?ve got my health. There?s no reason to blow up and get mad right now.? Then he broke into the inevitable quip: ?I?m planning on it later. Maybe tomorrow.?
Asked who he would invite to a fantasy dinner, George replied: ?Jack Kennedy because he was the iconic figure of my times. I guess you can?t have Marilyn Monroe. I grew up in such interesting times and with people who would really be interesting to hear speak at the table?Bobby Kennedy, Martin Luther King ... This summer, I had at my house a really funny, wild group. I had Woody Harrelson, Willie Nelson and Kofi Annan at the same table. That was a wild dinner is all I could say. That was one of those dinners where you look around going, ?This is like the Algonquin Table or something.? ?
In a relationship with Elisabetta Canalis for over a year now, which is, in a George Clooney world, almost a lifetime, he reflected: ?I have settled down. Have you noticed? I am very mellow. My attitude has always been the same, which is that I?m really happy. I have a really good life and enjoy it.?
Email the columnist at rvnepales_5585@yahoo.com.
