The fact that George Clooney gave his best friends $1 million each is a fact many people have heard. But what exactly prompted him to do so? Not many people know about that!
George Clooney happens to be one of the most recognizable names in Hollywood. The A-List actor has not had an easy time getting to where he is; when he first got to Los Angeles, the actor slept on friends’ couches while he was auditioning. And not for a second, has he forgotten where he came from.
One of the most popular stories about George Clooney is that he gave 14 of his best friends all $1 million in cash. A lot of people may have read that headline and disregarded it as a rumor because really, who gives $14 million away?
But the fact is Clooney did exactly that. The actor came clean in an interview about his intentions behind the entire thing.
“Amal and I had just met, but we weren’t dating at all,” the actor recalled. “I was a single guy. All of us were aging. I was 52 or something. And most of my friends are older than me,” he said.
Despite being single, he felt grateful for all the friends he had in his life, who gave him a helping hand whenever he needed one in the last 35 years of his life.
“They helped me when I needed help over the years. And I’ve helped them over the years. We’re all good friends,” he explained.
“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 f**ck am I waiting to get hit by a bus?” he recalled.
So George decided to share his good fortune with those closest to him. He had recently done the movie “Gravity” with Sandra Bullock which proved to be a massive hit and made him millions.
So the actor came up with a scheme that could make for a great plot for a movie.
He hired a van with “Florist” painted on one side. After that, he paid a visit to a warehouse in Los Angeles that was known for having “giant pallets” of money in stock.
The actor then got $14 million in cash and stuffed them into 14 individual Tumi suitcases. Then he called his group of friends, who he fondly refers to as “The Boys” to come over for dinner the next night.
The actor recalled the dinner, he said he held up a map to show his friends, “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,” he said.
One of the 14 men included Rande Gerber, who happens to be Cindy Crawford’s husband and also Clooney’s business partner in his Casamigos venture. He recalled the eventful night in an interview as well.
“George begins to say, ‘Listen, I want you guys to know how much you’ve meant to me and how much you mean to me in my life,” he said.
Gerber went on to narrate the events of that night. He said Clooney told them all how much they meant to him and how he could not have been where he is in his career without them. He then asked all of his friends to open the suitcases in front of them.
When the 14 men opened their suitcases, they were in absolute shock. Clooney added further to their shock and told them that he had already paid off taxes owed on the money.
“One was working at a bar in Texas at the airport, trying just to support his family,” Gerber said. “Rides a bicycle to work every day. I mean, these are guys that took care of George, and now he’s giving it all back,” Gerber said.
Gerber however, is a successful businessman in his own right and declined to accept his friend’s generous offer.
But Clooney is not one to take no for an answer, “I’m just going to make one announcement. If Rande doesn’t take the million dollars, nobody gets their money,” he replied. This prompted Rande to accept but he subsequently donated all of the money to charity.
George Clooney truly is the kind of friend everyone should have! This is such a heartwarming story.
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