Hollywood actor George Clooney gave his best friends $1 million each. In cash, in a case. Here’s what happened.
In an interview with GQ magazine, the ‘Ocean’s Eleven’ actor recalls how he came up with the idea.
At that point, back in 2013, he wasn’t married and he didn’t have family. He did however have a considerable bank balance.
“And I thought, what I do have are these [14] guys who’ve all, over a period of 35 years, helped me in one way or another,” Clooney says in the interview. “I’ve slept on their couches when I was broke. They loaned me money when I was broke. They helped me when I needed help over the years. And I’ve helped them over the years.”
“We’re all good friends,” Clooney continues. “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 am I waiting to get hit by a bus?”
Then, just like in one of his famous heist capers, he had to figure out how to get so much money out in cash all at the same time. Fortunately, he found a spot in Los Angeles where cash can be got in wads of small bills.
“So Clooney got an old beat-up van that said ‘Florist’ on it, like he was in a heist movie, and he drove downtown, and he got in an elevator with the florist’s van, and he took the van down to the vault and loaded it up with cash,” GQ reporter Zach Baron wrote in the profile. “He told no one but his assistant ‘and a couple of security guys.”
Having sorted out that logistic, Clooney called up his friends – all 14 of ‘The Guys’ – and invited them over for dinner. When they arrived, they found Tumi bags, each with the cash on a table.
Clooney proceeded to tell him about how much they mean to him and finally allowed them to open the bag.
“We open it up, and it’s $1 million in $20 bills,” friend Rande Gerber was quoted as saying by MSNBC. “Every one of us — 14 of us — got a million dollars. Every single one of us. We were in shock. Like, ‘What is this?'”
What did you last do for your best friend?