George Clooney and Brad Pitt are often held up as one of Hollywood’s most iconic bromances, but their relationship apparently didn’t begin on the smoothest note.
Geena Davis, 70, appeared on Watch What Happens Live on Thursday and shared that Clooney once couldn’t stand Pitt — stemming from losing out on the very role that helped catapult Pitt to fame.
The job was J.D. in the 1991 hit Thelma & Louise. Though it was a supporting part, the charming drifter made a huge impact, turning Pitt — then still largely unknown — into an instant breakout.
Davis explained she read with all four finalists, and told host Andy Cohen that Pitt’s audition stood out above the rest.
“He got the part all on his own merit,” she said, noting she immediately sensed he had something special.
At the time, Davis didn’t realize one of the other finalists was George Clooney, who was still trying to gain traction as a TV actor, with appearances on shows like The Facts of Life, The Golden Girls and Roseanne, well before his later success on ER.
Davis said she later ran into Clooney on a plane not long after the movie’s release. She described him as “very gregarious” and “talkative’, but said his tone shifted when Pitt’s name came up.
“We’re talking about Brad Pitt and he says, ‘You know, I hate that Brad Pitt,'” Davis recalled.
“I said, ‘no, you don’t. Isn’t he like your best friend or something?'”
But Clooney doubled down, according to Davis. “No, I hate him because he got the part in Thelma & Louise.”
Davis then asked him: “Oh, did you want to get that part?” She said he responded: “Couldn’t you tell when I read with you?”
Years later, Clooney himself backed up the essence of the story. In a 2025 interview with the Sunday Times, he said: “I got to the final test for a role in Thelma & Louise. And, motherf*cker, Brad got it.”
He also acknowledged how much it bothered him at the time: “I didn’t watch Thelma & Louise for years because I was annoyed. the part launched his career in film. He was doing sitcoms and crap before, so when it was the thing that could have launched me? F**K!”
Despite that early resentment, both actors ultimately became global superstars — and, in time, close friends. They later teamed up on screen in the Oceans Eleven franchise beginning in 2001. Pitt has also credited Thelma & Louise as his big break, including in his Oscar acceptance speech for Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood, when he thanked Davis and director Ridley Scott for giving him “my first shot.”
Thelma & Louise went on to earn five Academy Award nominations, with Callie Khouri winning Best Original Screenplay.