Brad Pitt and George Clooney are best mates – but who is the bigger Hollywood movie star?
According to Pulp Fiction director Quentin Tarantino, who has worked with both actors, the answer is simple – and it’s got one of them a little irritated.
Things got awkward when the duo did a joint interview with GQ in which they talked about their friendship as well as their long and successful careers.
Clooney had a bone to pick with Tarantino after the Pulp Fiction director said the 63-year-old actor was ”not a movie star” in the same way that Pitt, 60 was.
‘’Quentin said some s*** about me recently, so I’m a little irritated by him’’, Clooney griped.
‘’He did some interview where he was naming movie stars, and he was talking about (Pitt) … and then this guy goes, ‘Well what about George?’ Tarantino goes, ‘He’s not a movie star’.
‘’And then he literally said something like, ‘Name me a movie since the millennium’. And I was like, ‘since the millennium?’ That’s kind of my whole f****** career.’’
What did Quentin Tarantino say about George Clooney?
Clooney appeared to be referring to an interview that Tarantino gave to Deadline columnist Baz Bamigboye at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival.
Tarantino named Pitt, Julia Roberts, Leonardo DiCaprio, Denzel Washington and Charlize Theron as classic movie stars, but was rather blunt when Clooney was named.
‘’Well, it’s been a long while since I think George Clooney has drawn anybody to an audience,’’ he said.
‘’When was his last hit where he drew an audience?’’
Ouch!
What did George Clooney say about Quentin Tarantino?
Clooney worked with Tarantino on the 1996 cult film From Dusk Till Dawn; Pitt has worked with him twice, on Inglourious Basterds and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
Both have had massive careers that have taken in the Ocean’s 11 juggernaut and multiple awards, accolades and nominations.
‘’Now I’m like, alright dude, f*** off,’’ Clooney told GQ, clearly rattled by Tarantino’s assessment of his place on the movie star ladder.
‘’I don’t mind giving him s***. He gave me s***.’’
Clooney made sure to note that there wasn’t really any bad blood between him and Tarantino, despite the latter’s less-than-flattering comments.
‘’Look, we’re really lucky we got to work with these great directors,’’ he said. ‘’(A good) director and screenplay is what keeps you alive.’’
What did Brad Pitt say about George Clooney?
Pitt added that despite being good friends, he and Clooney could definitely be competitive with each other.
‘’We have a competitive nature. Like the competitiveness that an athlete would have,’’ Pitt told GQ.
‘’You take pride in what you do, you want it to really, really work … If I didn’t have a George Clooney in my life, I don’t know that I would’ve reached certain levels. But it inspires you to push on.’’
The two friends are set to appear together in the Jon Watts film Wolfs this September. Only one question remains: Will Quentin Tarantino make the invite list?
How long have Brad Pitt and George Clooney known each other?
The actors first crossed paths in the 90s and became good friends on the set of Oceans Eleven (2001).
”We’ve been friends for a long time,” Clooney told GQ. ”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.”
Are Brad Pitt and George Clooney still close friends?
Very much so. Pitt said Clooney was ”probably the best at understanding, seeing the chessboard and the potential chess moves … I’ll call George on numerous occasions when things get bumpy.”
Pitt said he and Clooney had ”been through so much life at this point and so many twists and curves and turns.”
He added that Clooney ”is going to understand something that no-one else is going to understand, that we don’t even have to speak about. There’s a comfort in that. I know he’s got my back. I got his back.”
A source told PEOPLE in February 2024 that the two truly were ”forever friends”.
”They like and respect each other no matter how many years in between gigs together,” the source said. ”They go way back.”
Why was Brad Pitt not at George Clooney’s wedding?
Fans of the pair wondered if something was amiss when Pitt didn’t attend Clooney’s 2014 wedding to his wife Amal.
Pitt’s absence from the ceremony was much talked about at the time, but it had nothing to do with a friendship gone awry.
The actor was in Malta filming By The Sea, a romantic flick about a dancer who falls for a writer, penned by his then-wife Angelina Jolie.
The shooting schedule clashed with the date of Clooney’s wedding, so he had to send his best wishes from afar.
The Clooneys are still happily married a decade later, but Pitt and Jolie split acrimoniously in 2016.
How many films have George Clooney and Brad Pitt been in together?
Quite a few! Apart from Oceans Eleven (2001), Oceans Twelve (2004) and Oceans Thirteen (2007), the pair have also starred together in Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002) and Burn After Reading (2008).
They are about to star together in a new movie, Wolfs, due out September 2024.
What is the movie Wolfs about?
Written and directed by Jon Watts, Wolfs is an Apple Studios thriller about two ”fixers” forced to work together on the same assignment.
”Hired to cover up a high-profile crime, a fixer soon finds his night spiralling out of control when he’s forced to work with an unexpected counterpart,” the film’s synopsis reads.
”Wolfs was a meaty project and both took a real interest in it,” a source told PEOPLE earlier this year.
”They are excited about the film, and enjoying the hell out of it and time leads up to the release.”
The film will co-star Amy Ryan, Austin Abrams and Poorna Jagannathan.
