George Clooney recently opened up to GQ about gifting 14 of his closest friends suitcases filled with $1 million each. This comes after Clooney's longtime friend and Casamigos tequila partner Rande Gerber told MSNBC the story in 2017.
Clooney explained that the grand gesture was made in 2013 before his movie "Gravity" premiered, and he added that the movie wound up being a "very good deal" because he was paid based on percentages of box-office revenue. The movie grossed $723,192,705 worldwide.
When speaking about the motivation for giving the gift, he explained, "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. 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. 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 the f*** am I waiting to get hit by a bus?"
Clooney then detailed how he got the $14 million in cash, revealing that he went to "an undisclosed location" in Los Angeles where pallets of cash are held for sale. Joined by "a couple of security guys that were sh*tting themselves," Clooney loaded up a beat-up florist van with the cash and separated it into the luggage before his friends joined him for dinner.
According to Gerber, Clooney gave his friends a speech about how much they mean to him and how he wanted to give back. Gerber then added, "We open [the luggage] up, and it's $1 million in $20 bills. Every one of us — 14 of us — got a million dollars. Every single one of us. We were in shock. Like, 'What is this?'" Gerber then added that Clooney got married to his wife, Amal Alamuddin, nearly one year later to the date.
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