The truth about George Clooney and Julia Roberts' relationship

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The truth about George Clooney and Julia Roberts' relationship
Pascal Le Segretain


BY DARIAN LUSK/AUG. 4, 2020 10:39 AM EDT/

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Julia Roberts and George Clooney just might have one of the sweetest friendships in Hollywood! The actors — who first co-starred as a crime couple in Ocean's Eleven — frequently hit red carpets together, were "Hollaback Girls" on Carpool Karaoke and just seem to genuinely support each other and crack each other up at every turn. With families of their own, other co-star credits like 2016's Money Monster and decades in the biz, it seems Roberts and Clooney are cut from the same cloth and it's resulted in a sweet professional and personal bond.


Roberts burst into superstardom with the 1990 film Pretty Woman, which is still among the highest-grossing rom-coms of all time, according to Forbes. She went on to star in rom-coms like My Best Friends Wedding and Notting Hill before ascending to dramatic excellence in films like 2000's Erin Brockovich, which won her an Oscar. Clooney has had a similar trajectory, making his way from the long-running medical series ER to suave leading man in films like Gravity, The Descendants and Up in the Air. 

These days, it seems these two never miss a chance to compliment one another. "... [She is] just an amazing mother, an amazing wife and a great, great friend," Clooney said of Roberts onstage at the 2013 BAFTAs, per the NY Daily News. Here's a closer look at George Clooney and Julia Roberts' friendship and some things you may not have known about their connection.


George Clooney and Julia Roberts haven't known each other for as long as people think

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Though George Clooney and Julia Roberts seem like career-long friends, they didn't meet until they both did Ocean's Eleven in 2001. "We met on Ocean's. We had actually never met before. People just thought we had," Clooney told People in a joint interview with Roberts in 2016. That being said, things got off to somewhat of a rocky start.


Right off the bat, Roberts found herself in the middle of Clooney's famous prank wars against Matt Damon as the Ocean's movies were being filmed. "When I got to the hotel in Rome, [during the filming of Ocean's Twelve] I opened my suitcase and there was this giant, heavy bronze statue in my suitcase and I almost burst into tears, 'How could they do this to me?'" Roberts told Entertainment Weekly Radio in 2017.

Things turned sweeter when a pregnant Roberts stayed with Clooney in Italy while filming the sequel. "At George's house, I remember walking down this path pregnant with Phinn and Hazel and turning the corner, and [her Ocean's co-stars] were sitting at the table having lunch. They were like, 'Oh, come sit down," Roberts told Allure in September 2015. "It was such a sweet shift in our relationships because originally, it was all pranks and teasing each other." 


From there, the rest is history and today the two seemingly have a genuine, lovely friendship. Roberts told People that it's a "relief [they're] not Hollywood friends, adding, "I just said to him an hour ago, 'Thank God we really do like each other, or we'd be in hell."