We here at The Digital Fix love hearing about a good Hollywood prank, and this one that George Clooney pulled on Matt Damon probably takes the cake.
The two actors worked together on the Ocean’s Eleven series of thriller movies. Since George Clooney is a notorious prankster among the Hollywood elite, it’s not surprising that he took the time to create a masterful trick to play on his co-star.
“The rottenest one we did was I started a campaign for Matt Damon,” he explained [via The Howard Stern Show]. “If you live in Hollywood, there’s the two entertainment papers — Variety and The Hollywood Reporter. You’d see during the Oscar campaign ‘For Your Consideration for Best Actor’. Every page is a full picture of the actors.”
In order to pull off the prank, Clooney utilized an image from the Matt Damon movie The Talented Mr Ripley, which showcased Damon in questionably tight swimming trunks. (If you want to see the outfit in all its glory, you can check out that exact scene from the movie below.)
Publishing the image in the major magazines as part of a fake campaign was all part of Clooney’s grand plan.
“So I took out ads with Matt Damon — remember he wore this green Speedo in The Talented Mr Ripley? I took that picture of him and literally, very seriously, said ‘For your consideration: Sexiest Man Alive’,” Clooney explained. “We kept pummeling it for two years, and they finally gave it to him.”
The prank, while hilarious, actually ended up working. Damon was in fact crowned The Sexiest Man Alive in 2007 by People Magazine. (Of course, Clooney is no stranger to this accolade, since he also won the title in 1997.)
Whether Matt Damon hated or loved Clooney for helping him win the coveted title, we’ll never know.