Though it might seem like superstars Brad Pitt and George Clooney work together all the time, their upcoming 2024 movie, Wolfs, marks the first time the duo has been in the same movie since Burn After Reading way back in 2008. Of course, part of the reason the actors are intrinsically linked in our minds is because of their previous partnership on the Ocean’s Eleven franchise, but it’s also because of their seemingly obvious “forever friends” status in real life over the years. So, are they actually that close behind the scenes? Pitt and Clooney just opened up about how close they really are.
What Did George Clooney And Brad Pitt Say About Being Friends In Real Life?
Even with George Clooney and Brad Pitt not having been on screen together for a long time, the past several years have still given us plenty of stories about the two. We’ve heard about the time Clooney and Pitt hilariously campaigned for Matt Damon to be “Sexiest Man Alive,” when the Se7en star pranked Clooney and made him the “maddest,” and when the Ocean’s Twelve lead stranded Don Cheadle and Pitt in a haunted house. But, are all of their antics based in a real friendship?
When speaking with GQ about Wolfs (which is opening in theaters before it hits streaming for those with and Apple TV+ subscription, because the stars gave some of their salaries back to make it possible), they were directly asked, “Are you guys actually friends?,” to which they replied:
- Clooney: It’s a very good question. After the restraining order that I took out…
- Pitt: Which was really, I had already had one against him—it’s kind of redundant. Unnecessary. This is why we’re sitting six feet apart now.
- Clooney: Yeah, man, we’re friends. We’ve been friends for a long time. And it’s fun because we also check in on each other every once in a while, which is an important part of this. Things get complicated in life and you always have to make sure everybody’s okay.
- Pitt: George is probably the best at understanding, seeing the chessboard and the potential moves. I’ll call George on numerous occasions when things get bumpy.
Awwww! See? They don’t just pull sometimes-complex pranks on each other to keep things interesting when they happen to work with one another. Pitt and Clooney have a real friendship which includes the standard “check in on each other” thing that all friends have to do to keep in contact, with their bromance supposedly including the married Clooney offering relationship advice to Pitt.
With the two truly being tight when the cameras are off, it’s a wonder why they haven’t worked with each other more, like the lifelong “bizarrely close” duo of Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. The trailer for Wolfs (the film will be released on September 20) shows the old buddies playing two crime scene fixers who are mistakenly called in for the same gig and are forced to work together when things go awry, leading to some classic bickering and bantering that fans of the Ocean’s movies will likely enjoy. When asked if they leaned on the skills they used back then when filming their new movie, they answered:
- Pitt: It’s time-off muscles. That’s 30 years of time off between the shoots.
- Clooney: But there’s an art to overlapping dialogue, right? Because when you do it poorly, you’re overlapping before you heard the phrase or the word that would key you to speak. And so what’s fun with Brad is, and I think you’re right, it’s just years of doing this shit, talking together—
- Pitt: Talking shit between takes.
While it’s technically been 23 years since their work on that classic heist movie, what the movie stars confirmed is that it was pretty easy to slip into that cadence because of their real friendship and how they actually talk to each other whenever they’re in contact. And, it’s because of the chemistry that’s grown from that real-world bond that will make us always want to see more of them together.
