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Considered one of the best movies of the 2000s, and one of the coolest if you ask me, Ocean’s Eleven is truly iconic. That’s mostly thanks to the Ocean’s Eleven cast, which was led by George Clooney. To this day, I think he could be considered a heartthrob, but during the early 2000s, he was really making people swoon, as Joshua Jackson illustrated while telling the story behind “the single coolest movie star thing” he’s ever witnessed.
While Joshua Jackson’s filmography proves that he’s a star in his own right, during a chat on The Rich Eisen Show, he opened up about “the single coolest movie star thing” he’d ever witnessed, and centered around George Clooney. Jackson, who was best known for Dawson’s Creek at the time, was one of the great cameos in the film’s poker lesson scene. While they were filming, he found a way to “weasel” into a conversation with the Danny Ocean actor, director Steven Soderbergh, Brad Pitt and more.
The conversation was wild, as the Doctor Odyssey star recalled:
This is how I got into the conversation. There’s 12 Indian motorcycles just sitting in a spot on the soundstage. And I’m like, kind of a gearhead. So I was like, ‘What was this?’ And he’s like, ‘Oh, well, these are gifts for my friends, because you do this stuff when you’re a movie star. But they have to go to Italy to get them. So I’m having all of these bikes shipped to Italy.’
First of all, just chatting about shipping motorcycles to Italy is crazy. The fact that Clooney was casually sending a dozen of them as gifts is even crazier. However, the story only escalated from here.
The Karate Kid: Legends actor explained that a production assistant came up during this chat to see if anyone wanted coffee or a snack. She made it through asking Brad Pitt and Jackson (which he kept referring to himself as the “young schmuck). However, when she made eye contact with Clooney, she literally swooned:
She gets to Clooney. Now they’ve been working together for like, 80 Days, right? This is a known person. ‘Mr. Pitt can I get you a cup of coffee? Young schmuck, can I get you a cup of coffee? Mr. Clooney,’ And as she’s saying the words, she literally swoons. Like the brain just short-circuits, and she swoons.
Girl, same. I’ve watched Ocean’s Eleven so many times (you can currently stream it with a Netflix subscription), and I’m such a big fan of everyone in the ensemble that I likely would have had the same reaction.
To that point, The Mighty Ducks actor also noted that people swooning in front of his co-star must have been a common occurrence, because:
In the middle of telling the story, these guys got to go to Italy, [Clooney] catches her, doesn’t break his sentence. Says, ‘No, that’s okay, babe, I got it.’ Puts her back on her feet, and goes immediately back into his story. Which I took to mean so many people swoon in this man’s presence, he doesn’t even break stride, didn’t even pause. It didn’t even dawn on him what [had just happened.]
Jackson went on to say that he really couldn’t believe what he saw. He also leaned into the fact that Clooney is known for his pranks by saying that “if it was a setup, bully for him.” Either way, he was blown away, and now he’s been telling this story for over two decades.
It’s a pretty epic one, too! To witness George Clooney, a sexiest man alive and charismatic movie star, literally catch someone who was in love with him is remarkable. Plus, add on the fact that they were casually talking about shipping motorcycles to Italy while filming a movie that’s now a classic heist film, and you have one hell of a tale.
So, yeah, if I were Joshua Jackson, I’d have been telling this story for the last 25 years, too.