George Clooney and Julia Roberts say they 'openly love each other' at the 'Ticket to Paradise' Los Angeles premiere
George Clooney and Julia Roberts discussed their close friendship during the "Ticket to Paradise" premiere night on Monday night in Los Angeles.
George Clooney and Julia Roberts' on-screen partnership of over 20 years has hit a major milestone.
With the success of their latest movie "Ticket to Paradise", the duo's five big-screen collaborations have raked in a combined global box office haul topping $1 billion.
"Ticket to Paradise" has grossed over $100 million internationally since its release last Friday. The A-list pair's biggest hit to date was 2001's "Ocean's Eleven" which brought in $451.5 million, followed by its 2004 sequel "Ocean's Twelve," 2016's "Money Monster" ($93.9 million) and 2003's "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind" ($36.9 million).
In their new romantic comedy, the Oscar winners play a divorced couple who team up to stop their daughter Lily, played by Kaitlyn Dever, from marrying a seaweed farmer that she met while on vacation in Bali.
Julia Roberts and George Clooney's on-screen partnership has marked a major milestone. (Photo by Tommaso Boddi/Getty Images )
JULIA ROBERTS, GEORGE CLOONEY REUNITE IN MOVIE TRAILER FOR ‘TICKET TO PARADISE’
Convinced that Lily is about to make the same mistake that they think they made 25 years prior, the warring exes put their differences aside and set out on a mission to sabotage the nuptials.
In a January interview with Deadline, Clooney, 61, revealed that he only agreed to star in "Ticket to Paradise" if Roberts also signed on to the project.
"In this one Julia and I just get to be mean to each other in the funniest way, and the minute I read it I called Julia, and I said, ‘Did you get this?’ and she said, ‘Yeah,’ and I said ‘Are you going to do it?’ and she goes ‘Are you going to do it? and I said, ‘Yeah, if you do it.’ So, it was just one of those very lucky things," Clooney said.
In May, Roberts, 55, joked that she did not have high hopes for the film, telling Variety, "I think it's so funny and George is so funny and George and I together, it's probably going to be terrible because there's too much potential for it to be great."
George Clooney and Julia Roberts' five on-screen collaborations have grossed a combined box office total over $1 billion. (Randy Holmes/ABC via Getty Image)
She continued, "I think that should be the commercial for the movie: ‘It’s probably going to be terrible.’ I’m so glad my publicist is on a plane right now."
Despite Roberts' dire prediction, the film currently holds an 88% audience score on RottenTomatoes and an A- CinemaScore.
"Ticket to Paradise's" triumphant opening, which comes at a time when the theater industry is still recovering from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, is indicative of the fact that their pairing consistently makes for box office gold.
Off-screen, the duo has built a close friendship with a long history of practical jokes, and their personal camaraderie and undeniable chemistry are apparent on-screen.
In a 2014 interview, George Clooney and Julia Roberts shared the story of their first meeting, which took place in a hotel room at West Hollywood's storied Chateau Marmont. (Nathan Congleton/NBC via Getty Images)
In a 2014 interview with Vanity Fair, Clooney and Roberts shared the story of their first meeting, which took place in a hotel room at West Hollywood's storied Chateau Marmont.
Roberts recalled that the two were reported to have been the best of friends at the time, despite never having met. Ahead of the meeting, Clooney, who was courting the "Pretty Woman" actress to star in "Ocean's Eleven," sent her the film's script with a $20 bill.
"We'd heard that she was making $20 [million] a picture, so we offered her $20," he said with a smile of the production team.
"They sent me the script with a $20 bill in it," Roberts added.
Clooney laughed while noting, "And then she said yes."
Julia Roberts and George Clooney first starred together in 2001's "Ocean's Eleven." (Shutterstock)
During a joint appearance with Clooney on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" earlier this month, Roberts said that she knew the two would share a lifelong connection from the first time they met.
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"We became instant friends," Roberts said. "You know, you just meet people and sometimes you think, 'I really don't like that person. I have no reason to not like them. I just don't like them and I will never change my mind.'
"Then there's some people that you meet, like my GTC [George Timothy Clooney], who you go, 'OK, I'm going to know this person until the end of time. This is a good one.'"
The two recounted stories from their time shooting "Ocean's Eleven" in Las Vegas, including a prank that they pulled on Clooney's close friend, Richard Kind, when he visited them at the Bellagio Hotel.
The pair told Kimmel that they were having cocktails with Kind and members of the "Ocean's Eleven" cast including Matt Damon and Brad Pitt in one of their hotel rooms when the "Curb Your Enthusiasm" star fell asleep in a rollaway bed.
Clooney recalled that the group then wheeled the bed that Kind was sleeping on into the middle of the casino and left him there.
"There were a lot of like, old ladies with that thing," Clooney said as he mimicked pulling the handle of a slot machine. "Like, 'What the hell's that guy [doing]?"
Julia Roberts told Jimmy Kimmel that she knew she and George Clooney would be friends for life from the first time they met. (Randy Holmes/ABC via Getty Images)
After "Ocean's Eleven," Clooney enlisted Roberts to join the cast of his directorial debut "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind," which starred Sam Rockwell in the lead role.
"Julia really helped me. Her doing the part made it possible for me to cast Sam Rockwell, who is not well known, as Chuck Barris," Clooney told The New York Times in 2002. "He can't drive a $28 million film, but Julia certainly can."
Roberts and Drew Barrymore also agreed to appear in the movie for scale salaries of $250,000 as a favor to Clooney.
In 2006, Roberts presented Clooney with the American Cinematheque Award, telling him, "You are, before I met my husband, about the best man I have ever known."
In 2006, Julia Roberts presented with George Clooney with the American Cinematheque Award, telling him, "You are, before I met my husband, about the best man I have ever known." (Photo by SGranitz/WireImage)
"You’re just one helluva guy," she said, per the Hollywood Reporter. "We’re here to put our hands together and be honored that this world has this man in it."
A couple of years later, Roberts and Clooney teamed up off-screen for the 2008 Met Gala, serving as celebrity co-chairs along with Vogue Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour, and Giorgio Armani as Honorary Chair.
In 2013, Roberts presented Clooney with the Stanley Kubrick Britannia Award for Excellence in Film at the BAFTA Brittanica Awards, and she did not miss the opportunity to roast her pal while on stage.
George Clooney and Julia Roberts later reunited on-screen in Jodie Foster's 2016 crime thriller "Money Monster." (Anthony Harvey/FilmMagic)
"I was chosen to present to George for two reasons," Roberts told the crowd, per Variety. "One, Brad Pitt was out of town and two, Matt Damon is in town but unavailable."
Roberts went on to heckle Clooney from the audience while he was giving his speech. After the "Gravity" star noted that he did not have any children, Roberts called out, "That you know of!"
"That I know of," Clooney acknowledged before adding that Hollywood was his family, according to the outlet.
Clooney stepped behind the camera to produce the 2013 movie "August: Osage County," which starred Roberts, Meryl Streep, Ewan McGregor, Chris Cooper, Abigail Breslin, Benedict Cumberbatch and Juliette Lewis.
At a screening of the film, Clooney and fellow producer Grant Heslov joked about how Roberts was easier to work with than Streep.
George Clooney stepped behind the camera to produce the 2013 movie "August: Osage County," which starred Julia Roberts. (John Shearer/WireImag)
"As you well know, Julia is an alcoholic," Clooney joked to Variety. "It was easier to work with her because you just offer her booze, apply that with anything."
"She’s no good after 11:30," Heslov teased.
Clooney and Roberts later reunited on-screen in Jodie Foster's 2016 crime thriller "Money Monster."
In a 2015 interview with Extra, Roberts raved about meeting Clooney's wife Amal for the first time while the film was in production.
Roberts shared that she went out to dinner with Clooney and Amal, whom he wed in 2014. When asked if she approved of Amal, she said, "Oh yes, George doesn’t need my approval, but I am quite enamored of her."
In a 2015 interview with Extra, Julia Roberts raved about meeting George Clooney's wife Amal for the first time while the film was in production. (Toni Anne Barson/FilmMagic)
Clooney told E! News that he was happy to see his wife and his longtime friend get along so well after he introduced them.
"We've been really good friends for a really long time and I just adore her," Clooney said of Roberts. "She and Amal and I went out to dinner the other night. It was so much fun to have her meet my wife and have both of them be such good friends and hit it off so well."
While promoting "Money Monster," Roberts recalled how Clooney cared for her when she was pregnant with her twins Phinneas and Hazel in 2003.
'At George’s house, I remember walking down this path pregnant with Phinn and Hazel and turning the corner, and all the boys were sitting at the table having lunch. They were like, "Oh, come sit down." I wasn't allowed to walk the stairs," she told Allure in 2015.
"She's so wonderful with our kids, who call her ‘Auntie JuJu’," Amal said of Julia Roberts. (Samir Hussein/WireImage)
‘It was such a sweet shift in our relationships because originally, it was all pranks and teasing each other," she continued. "And here I am pregnant, so it’s like pulling out my chair and just making sure I have enough water and, 'Are you feeling okay? You look a little peaked.' 'I’m fine.’"
Roberts later expressed that it was a "relief" that she and Clooney were not "Hollywood friends."
"I just said to him an hour ago, 'Thank god we really do like each other, or we'd be in hell,'" she told People in 2016.
"She stayed at my house in Italy when she was first pregnant," Clooney added.
"She brought all those monsters [Phinneas, Hazel and son Henry] back to the house when they were actual human beings and we've had a blast with them."
Julia Roberts said that the Clooney family "saved" her from "complete loneliness and despair" while they were in Australia filming "Ticket to Paradise." (Toni Anne Barson/FilmMagic)
"What he's saying is we've just stitched our lives closer together," Roberts said. "All these people that come into our lives; my husband, my children, his wife Amal Clooney. We just keep stitching our lives closer together."
Last month, Amal spoke of her family's close bond with Roberts as she remembered how they spent a few months together in Australia while filming "Ticket to Paradise."
"She's so wonderful with our kids, who call her ‘Auntie JuJu’," Amal told Gayle King during an appearance with her husband on CBS Mornings.
"We spent a lot of time together," Amal continued. "It was wonderful."
Roberts also discussed their time in Australia during an interview with Variety. "The Clooneys saved me from complete loneliness and despair," she told the outlet.
Though their relationship never turned romantic, the pair has said they "openly love each other." ( Kevork Djansezian/BAFTA LA/Getty Images for BAFTA LA)
"We were in a bubble, and it’s the longest I’ve ever been away from my family. I don’t think I’ve spent that much time by myself since I was 25."
Earlier this month, Clooney shared his thoughts on why he and Roberts never took their friendship to "a different level."
"Julia was always in a relationship, or I was in a relationship," he told Access Hollywood.
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"And we were fast friends right away. So it was nothing, but it's been nothing but fun for us. So, I don't think that was ever really a thing."
Though their relationship never turned romantic, the pair recently said that they "openly love each other."
"We have had a very funny relationship over the years," Clooney said on the red carpet at the "Ticket to Paradise" premiere last week.
"I could make a lot of jokes but the truth is that my family and my wife and my kids and Julia and her family — they're family. That's the truth."
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