Photo: GQ Magazine
Until July 2018, actor George Clooney was one of Hollywood’s most famous bikers and motorcycle collectors. That summer changed everything, after he was involved in a serious crash in Sardinia, Italy, on the way to the set of a movie.
The December / January issue of GQ Magazine names Clooney Icon of the Year and includes an extensive interview with the actor from his home. In between promoting new projects, talking about dad and married life, and explaining how acting came to bore him, Clooney also talks about the 2018 crash and how it changed his life.
It also nearly ended it.
At the time of the interview, Clooney had just come out of surgery on his neck, which, he says, was necessary to fix a “disk problem” he’d been having since the crash. The pain resulting from the accident injuries added to existing pain from an on-set injury he suffered in 2005, while doing Syriana. To him, pain is the new normal, the actor remarks.
As for the crash, which occurred while Clooney was riding his motorcycle at 75 mph (120.7 kph) and an incoming Mercedes-Benz E-Class Wagon turned right in front of him, he thought that was it. He hit the car full-on and was thrown high in the air, landing with his head against the windshield (which split his helmet in half), before slamming the pavement.
“I launched. I go head over heels. But I landed on my hands and knees. If you did it 100 times, maybe once you land on your hands and knees, and any other version you land, you're toast. It knocked me out of my shoes,” Clooney recalls. “When I hit the ground, my mouth – I thought all my teeth were broken out. But it was glass from the windshield.”
As he was sent flying through the air, he didn’t have a “life flashes before your eyes”-kind of moment, but he did think that he’d never see his twins again, that he was going to die. By then, he had enough experience riding to know that the odds of paralysis were high in this type of collision, so he kept “waiting for the switch to turn off” as he was on the ground.
His pal and producing partner Grant Heslov was riding ahead of Clooney at the moment of impact, and he rushed back to help, yelling at people to clear the area around the victim and call for an ambulance. It was this moment that Clooney recalls with more pain than the actual crash: eyewitnesses with phones out, looking to film the scene instead of calling for help.
“I'm not a cynical guy, and I really tend to look at life and try to find the good in everything. But I'll never forget the moment that what I thought might be my last few moments was for everyone else a piece of entertainment,” Clooney says.
After the crash, Clooney’s wife Amal told him that his riding days were over, and he agreed.
It also nearly ended it.
At the time of the interview, Clooney had just come out of surgery on his neck, which, he says, was necessary to fix a “disk problem” he’d been having since the crash. The pain resulting from the accident injuries added to existing pain from an on-set injury he suffered in 2005, while doing Syriana. To him, pain is the new normal, the actor remarks.
As for the crash, which occurred while Clooney was riding his motorcycle at 75 mph (120.7 kph) and an incoming Mercedes-Benz E-Class Wagon turned right in front of him, he thought that was it. He hit the car full-on and was thrown high in the air, landing with his head against the windshield (which split his helmet in half), before slamming the pavement.
“I launched. I go head over heels. But I landed on my hands and knees. If you did it 100 times, maybe once you land on your hands and knees, and any other version you land, you're toast. It knocked me out of my shoes,” Clooney recalls. “When I hit the ground, my mouth – I thought all my teeth were broken out. But it was glass from the windshield.”
As he was sent flying through the air, he didn’t have a “life flashes before your eyes”-kind of moment, but he did think that he’d never see his twins again, that he was going to die. By then, he had enough experience riding to know that the odds of paralysis were high in this type of collision, so he kept “waiting for the switch to turn off” as he was on the ground.
His pal and producing partner Grant Heslov was riding ahead of Clooney at the moment of impact, and he rushed back to help, yelling at people to clear the area around the victim and call for an ambulance. It was this moment that Clooney recalls with more pain than the actual crash: eyewitnesses with phones out, looking to film the scene instead of calling for help.
“I'm not a cynical guy, and I really tend to look at life and try to find the good in everything. But I'll never forget the moment that what I thought might be my last few moments was for everyone else a piece of entertainment,” Clooney says.
After the crash, Clooney’s wife Amal told him that his riding days were over, and he agreed.
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