Brad Pitt reveals George Clooney prank on Bravo’s “Inside the Actors Studio”

Most people tune in to Bravo’s Inside the Actors Studio to hear their favorite actors divulge some of the deeply personal events in their lives that enabled them to become the great performers they are on screen.

Host James Lipton sits at his desk with his cue cards filled with the deep dark secrets he has dug up in an attempt to go beyond the surface, and oftentimes he succeeds with the celebrities breaking down to reveal they are really no different than the acting students in the audience or the the fans watching on TV.

Don’t expect a whole lot of that tonight in Lipton’s interview with Brad Pitt (8pm ET). Sure, he will most likely ask about touchy subjects like Pitt’s failed marriage to Jennifer Aniston and his highly-publicized adoptions with Angelina Jolie, but the highlight is sure to be his friendship with George Clooney from the Oceans 11 trilogy.

In a preview released by Bravo, Pitt details a prank that he played on Clooney — a renowned prankster — when they were doing a movie together in Italy. As Pitt explains it, this is how it went down:

“We were about to film in Italy, and George [on past movies] is our ambassador on the set. He’s fun, he’s telling jokes, he keeps everyone together, and he loves that camaraderie. He eats lunch with the crew. We’re about to get to Italy where he has a home, and I sent a memo to the entire Italian crew in Italian that said:

‘Dear Crew, we wish you a wonderful shoot. George Clooney asks that — this is a very difficult role for him, he needs to concentrate deeply — you try not to interrupt him … If you need to address Mr. Clooney, please refer to him only as Daniel or Mr. Ocean. We’re sorry for the inconvenience, we’re all after the same thing. Let’s make the best movie we can.’

Pitt goes on to add that the prank went on for two weeks with the crew only addressing Clooney by those names, which happened to be the first and last name of his character in the Ocean films. And as someone who has been a fan of Inside the Actors Studio for many years, it’s those lighter moments that always seem to register with me the most.

Pranks and laughs aside, I am also interested to hear Pitt talk about everything from his break-out role in Thelma & Louise to his latest hit Moneyball. With a career as diverse as his, Lipton should have little problem making this one of his more interesting interviews.

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© NBC Universal, Inc. Credit: Anthony Behar/Bravo