GQ dubbed George Clooney its Icon of the Year, and the actor opened up about his life and family in a candid cover story.
The 59-year-old, who is married to Amal Clooney, with whom he shares 3-year-old twins, reflected on a terrifying 2018 motorcycle crash that almost changed everything. He said: “He literally turned directly in front of me. I launched. I go head over heels. But I landed on my hands and knees. If you did it 100 times, maybe once you land on your hands and knees, and any other version you land, you're toast. It knocked me out of my shoes.”
The Midnight Sky star continued, “When I hit the ground, my mouth — I thought all my teeth were broken out. But it was glass from the windshield.”
He said of those wild moments, witnessed by producing partner Grant Heslov: “I was on the ground. I was really screaming. Like, really screaming. And Grant came back, and he was screaming at everybody to get an ambulance, and I remember everybody got out of their cars, they stopped in the middle of the street, and all these people came and stood over me and just pulled out their phones and started taking video. It's a funny thing. I'm not a cynical guy, and I really tend to look at life and try to find the good in everything. But I'll never forget the moment that what I thought might be my last few moments was for everyone else a piece of entertainment.”
LOVE
On marriage to Amal, he said: “I didn't know how un-full it was until I met Amal. And then everything changed. And I was like, ‘Oh, actually, this has been a huge empty space."”
He added: “I'd never been in the position where someone else's life was infinitely more important to me than my own. You know? And then tack on two more individuals, who are small and have to be fed.…”
Describing his quarantine routine, he said: “I cut my own hair and I cut my kids' hair and I'm mopping it and vacuuming and doing the laundry and doing the dishes every day. I feel like my mother in 1964. You know, I understand why she burned her bra.”
FRIENDS
On giving his friends $1 million each in 2013, he said: “I just thought basically if I get hit by a bus, they’re all in the will. So why the f–k am I waiting to get hit by a bus?”
At that point, he was single. Clooney said: “And I thought, what I do have are these guys who’ve all, over a period of 35 years, helped me in one way or another,” he recalled. “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. … And I thought, you know, without them I don’t have any of this.”