George Clooney talks about surviving a near-fatal motorcycle crash

There may be someone on the planet who is cooler than George Clooney, but the list is short. The actor and director has just been named GQ’s Icon of the Year and is appearing on the magazine’s cover for the first time in 16 years. Speaking to writer Zach Baron, Clooney opened up about his new domestic role at home with his wife and children during COVID, surviving a near-fatal motorcycle crash, and how his plan to give his closest friends a suitcase filled with $1 million in cash was essentially a real-life Oceans 11 script, minus the robbery.The interview opens with Clooney revealing that he had recently undergone neck surgery following a 2018 motorcycle accident. While riding to the Italian set of his series Catch 22, Clooney was hit by a car and thrown from his motorcycle, landing headfirst through a windshield. The actor amazingly wasn’t paralyzed or killed, but remembers the instant physical pain and fear that he would never see his children again. He also remembers the moments after the crash when he was surrounded by passersby who began taking videos and pictures of the famous actor in what could have been his final moments. “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,” said Clooney. “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.”

 

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Clooney was in his home in California for the interview, which she shares with wife Amal Clooney and their 3-year-old twins, Alexander and Ella. During Clooney and Baron’s conversation, Amal was in another room working on a letter announcing her intention to resign as the U.K.'s special envoy on media freedom in protest over Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s plans to pass a bill violating international law. And her very proud husband, the GQ Icon of the Year, was in the living room talking about movies.Like many people, COVID has forced the Clooneys to retreat to their home and remain physically cut off from much of the outside world. “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,” said Clooney. “I feel like my mother in 1964. You know, I understand why she burned her bra.”[video_embed id='2010023']RELATED: George & Amal Clooney donate $100K to Lebanese relief[/video_embed]Not venturing away from their property doesn’t mean that the Clooneys are removed from what is happening in the US and beyond. Following the announcement that the police officers involved in the murder of Breonna Taylor would not be charged, Clooney published a statement on Deadline condemning the attorney general in his home state of Kentucky. “I can't believe it,” said Clooney. “There's not even a manslaughter charge for a woman who was lying in bed and got shot to death. Imagine if those were three Black officers and they kicked in the door of a white person's home and shot and killed the woman, the wife, in bed. Imagine that. Fucking ridiculous. You know, it's just infuriating,” continued the actor. “You know, they talk about looting and stuff. Well, there have been an awful lot of Black bodies that have been looted for 400 fucking years.”Clooney has frequently used his celebrity to help champion causes, including advocating for justice for Taylor, but has resisted creating a social media platform. Still, he is keeping an eye on how other people get their message across. More specifically, he’s a big fan of Chrissy Teigen, whom he says he has so ‘much fun watching.’ “Somebody steps into her world and you go, ‘Oh, I wouldn't do that, dude.’ It's so much fun. Like somebody who thinks they're really smart, and you just go, ‘Ugh, dude. You brought a knife to a gunfight.’”

 

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In addition to his wife, Clooney credits his close friends for helping to keep him grounded throughout the ongoing global pandemic. Many of these friends were recipients of a generous gift from Clooney back in 2013, which until recently had only been a rumor.Clooney said he and Amal had just met and were not yet dating when he decided to use the big paycheck he received from royalties on Gravity to thank 14 of his friends who had supported him throughout his career. “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 fuck am I waiting to get hit by a bus,” said Clooney.The actor said he managed to find a secret location in Los Angeles where pallets of cash are stored. Clooney rented an old van to drive to the location and only told his assistant “and a couple of security guys that were shitting themselves. And we brought it up, and I bought 14 Tumi bags, and then I packed in a million bucks, cash, which isn't as much as you think it is, weight-wise, into these Tumi bags.”Clooney said he invited his 14 friends to his house the next day to present them with their gifts. “And I just held up a map and I just pointed to all the places I got to go in the world and all the things I've gotten to see because of them. And I said, ‘How do you repay people like that?’ And I said, ‘Oh, well: How about a million bucks?’ And the fun part about it was: That was the 27th, the 28th of September,” said Clooney. “A year later, on the 27th of September, just by happenstance, was the day I got married.” See? The coolest.[video_embed id='-1']Before you go: Simple & genius way to keep cats from jumping on kitchen counter[/video_embed]