Matt Damon Once Got Caught Up in a George Clooney Revenge Prank on Tina Fey and Amy Poehler
George Clooney is the ultimate prankster — and once, Matt Damon got caught up in the revenge prank Clooney pulled on Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. It took Damon a beat to catch on, but only after Fey and Poehler struck back.
George Clooney pulled a revenge prank on Tina Fey and Amy Poehler after their Golden Globes joke
Fey and Poehler poked fun at Clooney when they hosted the 2014 Golden Globes and it set his prank in motion.
Fey delivered a joke about Clooney’s film Gravity. “It’s the story of how George Clooney would rather float away into space and die than spend one more minute with a woman his own age,” she said at the awards show.
Clooney couldn’t sit idly by so he came up with a revenge prank and got Damon unknowingly involved. Fey shared the story during a 2018 interview on SiriusXM Town Hall.
When asked if Clooney ever got even, she said, “Oh yeah, he did like a whole revenge thing on us. He did all these George Clooney pranks on me and Amy. He sent me this letter that was supposedly from Matt Damon that he was upset with us and the joke we had done. We lived in fear of it.”
Clooney sold the letter by using stationary with Damon’s name on it.
Fey responded by sending a peace offering to Damon, but covered her bases. “I sent two giant fruit baskets to Matt Damon being like, ‘Here is one in case this is real, I’m super sorry. And here is one in case this is a prank,'” Fey explained. “Matt Damon was like, ‘My wife is mad, there’s so much fruit!'”
Matt Damon discovered he was part of George Clooney’s prank
Clooney and Damon discussed the prank during a 2014 SiriusXM Town Hall event. Clooney said he “started the ball rolling” on his revenge. “I used Matt — sorry,” he said to his The Monuments Men co-star.
The actor explained what he wrote in the letter: “I sent her a letter going, ‘Dear Tina.’ And it just says, ‘Look, it sounds hypocritical because I laughed at the jokes about George and Leo. But you know, that’s sort of what people think about them. But when you called me a garbage man, it just seems like low-hanging fruit, it seems like an easy joke. And you know, I don’t want an apology, I don’t want anything else. I just want you to know that my kid now calls me the garbage man.’”
Damon said he was completely unaware of Clooney’s prank. “Just a little background,” he said. “I’m sitting at my house, minding my own business, and the biggest two fruit baskets you’ve ever seen in your life show up at my house.” There were two envelopes attached, he recalled. “I open letter number one — now they made some jokes about me at the Golden Globes — they called me a garbage man or something.”
He continued, “She says in this letter, ‘I thought you of all people could take a joke but listen, we’re both really sorry…’ And it’s this long apology letter signed ‘Tina and Amy.’ And then I go to letter number two. And it says, ‘If by chance you didn’t send us that letter and it was from George Clooney — please let him know that you gotta get up a little earlier in the day to fool a couple girls like us.'”
Damon shared the details of Fey and Poehler’s letter
During a 2014 appearance on the Late Show With David Letterman, Damon told the story, including the exact not-so-nice letter from Fey and Poehler.
He read the note during his interview: “If your note is part of some George Clooney prank, as I very strongly suspect it is, you A-list amateurs are going to have to step it the f**k up. We are not some easily confused starlets here. We are grown-ass, professional comedians. Please accept this fruit as a token of our sincerity. Best wishes, Elizabeth Tina Fey, Amy ‘Boston’ Poehler.”
Damon said he had no clue Clooney had sent the forged letter, but it became immediately clear he was part of the prank. “I have no idea how many letters are out there, to how many people,” Damon said.
