Bumper Sticker Blag
The Film: Ocean’s 12
The Prankster: George Clooney
The Prank: The true king of Hollywood pranks, Clooney has cultivated a reputation as a master joker through the years. And few people have been as big a target of his humour as Brad Pitt.
The pair have enjoyed a long rivalry in the pranking world, which came to a head when Pitt issued a fake memo on the set of Ocean’s 12, which ordered all crew members to refer to Clooney only as “Mr Ocean” so he could stay in camera.
Not one to be outdone, Clooney soon struck back. “I put bumper stickers on his car. “One on that went for a few days that said, 'I'm gay and I vote…' And then it was, ‘Small Penis on Board.’ And that ran for a few days too.
“People were honking at him and waving,” chuckles Matt Damon. “And he thinks it's because he's Brad Pitt and he's waving back.”
Phone Prank
The Film: Twilight
The Prankster: Edi Gathegi
The Prank: Ah, the prank call. Truly a classic, and one which Twilight’s Laurent – AKA actor Edi Gathegi was only too happy to keep up.
“Edi Gathegi was the big jokester,” co-star Peter Facinelli recall. ”He does all these voices. One day I told him to call Jackson Rathbone and do his ‘Suzie’ voice for him and say he was from the production office. So he called and said, ‘We just want to tell you that we're dying your hair back to brown, because we don't like the blond hair.’
“Jackson was like, ‘Oh, OK.’ And he was actually on the phone with his manager, so he clicked over and was like, ‘Oh, yeah, they just called me. They're dying my hair back." And his manager goes, ‘Oh, thank God. I hated you with blond hair!’
And then Edi called them back and was like, "It's just me." And Jackson had to call his manager back to say it's not real. And the manager was totally backpedalling!”
Vodka Shocker
The Film: Run, Fatboy, Run
The Prankster: Thandie Newton
The Prank: Thandie Newton might not appear to be someone who enjoys pulling gags on her co-stars, but Simon Pegg and David Schwimmer know better.
“When Simon was on set working, she would put cellophane on his toilet so when he went to go to the bathroom he splashed everywhere. She would take old underwear and rub it with Marmite and put it in his trailer It was pretty disgusting,” Schwimmer told Contactmusic.
“I think the best one was when we were doing the press junket together in London. Thandie had got there hours before Simon and I, and she had filled every one of his 12 giant bottles of water with vodka. So when he was in the middle of his first interview on camera and he goes to take a swig during the interview, a huge gulp and just spits up everywhere all over the interviewer.”
Cheesy Idea
The Film: Flawless
The Prankster: Ashton Kutcher
The Prank: Kutcher is no stranger to extracting the Michael from targets – after all, he was the Jeremy Beadle of the MTV scene with his show Punk’d.
But when someone decided to play a trick on Kutcher’s wife Demi Moore on the set of Flawless, he was more than ready to retaliate….
"The prop man started it with eggs and stinky cheese," Moore told People. “It was during a scene where I had to open a locker and be very serious. I opened it, and it smelled like something had died! Ashton happened to be visiting and he participated in a little retribution.
“All I can say is that the prop man, after a week, found his jacket had cheese zipped inside various places.” Whiffy…
Boob Boom
The Film: St Trinian’s
The Prankster: Rupert Everett
The Prank: Colin Firth might not be the first person you’d suspect as having a spontaneous sense of humour, but it turns out he and Rupert Everett made a cracking comedy team on the school comedy’s set.
Everett mentions one particular joke, which involved exchanging his prosthetic bust for something a little more… explosive.
"For the love scene, I put balloons in my breasts as a surprise so that when he fondled them they exploded," says Everett. "But it didn't work the first time so I let Colin in on the joke. Next time, he put pins in his fingers so he burst them when he grabbed me. It certainly startled the crew."
Sheets Shock
The Film: After The Sunset
The Prankster: Brett Ratner
The Prank: Ratner likes to keep his sets light, fun and preferably stocked with models.
But while he can’t throw a party all the time, he still likes to keep his actors on their toes. Take Pierce Brosnan, who was attempting to shoot a relatively simple scene in After Sunset which would see him complete a phone call, lean back in bed and kiss Salma Hayek.
Except Hayek was replaced with a slightly more hirsute bed partner for one scene. "When he went to kiss her, he closed his eyes and I was literally a half an inch from making out with him,” laughs Ratner. “And he screamed at the top of his lungs and literally jumped out of the bed."
You can actually see that one here .
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Amid Oscar buzz, Zoe Saldana opens up on her new perspective on Hollywood and why she's only really proud of Avatar and Emilia Pérez: "I think I just have to accept who I am as a creative person"
