Single and generous: George Clooney gave 14 million dollars to 14 friends

Single and generous: George Clooney donated 14 million dollars to 14 friends

The case dates back to the debut of “Gravidade” in theaters, a film that made the actor even richer.

This story happened in 2013, when “Gravidade” premiered in theaters. The studios thought the film set in space and directed by Alfonso Cuarón was going to be a flop, but it turned out to be the exact opposite: it was a huge box office success. And he won seven Oscars.

Because of this, the deal they made with the protagonists – namely Sandra Bullock and George Clooney – was that instead of receiving a specific payment, they were left with a percentage of the box office revenue. Which turned out to be a great deal for the actors.

At the time, George Clooney was single, 52 years old, and felt particularly generous to his friends. There were already rumors about this story, from an interview one of Clooney’s friends, Rande Gerber, gave to MSNBC in 2017.

However, it was not until this month of November that George Clooney brought up the subject, in an interview with the US edition of “GQ” magazine. “We’re all getting old, and most of my friends are older than me,” he began by saying, still reluctantly.

In 2013, he had no family to support, nor an idea of ​​when it might happen – he had already met his future wife, the Briton of Lebanese descent Amal Alamuddin, but they had not yet started a relationship.

George Clooney and one of 14 friends, Rande Gerber.

“And I thought, what I have are these guys who, for 35 years, have helped me in one way or another. I slept on their sofas when I was broke. They loaned me money when I was broke. They have helped me when I needed it over the years. And I have helped them over the years. We are all good friends. And I thought that without them I had none of that. We are very close and I always thought that if I was hit by a bus … they are all in the will. So why am I waiting to be hit by a bus?

So he decided he wanted to give each of these 14 close friends a million dollars. In euros, the total is equivalent to around 11.8 million. He did some research to try to figure out how he could get that physical amount of money and found a place – confidential – where he could do it, in downtown Los Angeles, where there were “giant pallets of money.” ‘silver”.

As if it were a Hollywood movie, George Clooney got an old pickup truck that said “florist” on the side and drove downtown. He got the van up into the building elevator, which went down to the safe, and filled the van with $ 14 million – a million in each bag. He didn’t say any of this to anyone except his assistant and “two security guards who were doing nonsense.”

The next day, he gathered all his friends without telling them anything. “I took a map and started to mark all the places I could go in the world and all the things I could see because of them. And he said, “How do you compensate people like that? Well, maybe a million dollars? And the fun part is it was September 27 or 28 [de 2013]. A year later, September 27, by chance, was my wedding day.