Everything George Clooney and Julia Roberts have said about their 20-year friendship

When it was reported back in 2000 that Julia Roberts was making $20 million dollars per movie (she reportedly received that salary for her role in "Erin Brokovich"), George Clooney says he jokingly attached a $20 dollar bill to the script of "Ocean's Eleven" — the 2001 remake he was hoping she would join.

"We'd heard that she was making $20 million a picture at that point so we offered her $20," Clooney joked in a 2014 Vanity Fair interview.

"They sent me a script with the $20 bill," Roberts cut in.

"And she said yes," Clooney concluded.

"We became instant friends," Roberts told Jimmy Kimmel in 2022 of meeting Clooney for the first time.

"You just meet people and sometimes you think, 'I really don't like that person. I have no reason to not like them. I just don't like them and I will never change my mind.' Then there's some people that you meet, like my GTC, who you go, 'OK, I'm going to know this person until the end of time. This is a good one,'" she said.

Clooney famously played Batman in 1997's "The Dark Knight." The role apparently made quite an impression on Roberts.

"George is in my phone under code name 'Batman's cell,'" she told Good Day Chicago's Jake Hamilton during a 2022 interview.

Clooney was surprised about the nickname. "Batman's cell? Oh, that's funny," he responded during the same interview.

Roberts and Clooney have made multiple movies together, including an "Ocean's Eleven" remake in 2001, Clooney's first directorial effort "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind" in 2002, "Ocean's Twelve" in 2004, an adaptation of "August: Osage County" that Clooney produced in 2013, the thriller "Money Monster" in 2016, and most recently, the 2022 film "Ticket to Paradise."

"What a relief we're not Hollywood friends," Roberts told People in 2016. "I just said to him an hour ago, 'Thank God we really do like each other, or we'd be in hell.' "

Clooney says the pair never broke out of the friend zone.

"Julia was always in a relationship, or I was in a relationship. And we were fast friends right away," said Clooney during an interview on SiriusXM's The Jess Cagle Show this year.

Julia has been married to Danny Moder since July 4, 2002. Clooney married Amal Clooney on September 27, 2014.

"It's been nothing but fun for us," Clooney added about his friendship with Roberts. "I don't think that was ever really a thing."

Though the pair is known for pranking each other, Roberts says Clooney switched gears and became protective of her when she was pregnant with her twins, Phinn and Hazel, in 2004.

Clooney, along with the other "Ocean's" costars, insisted Roberts take it easy.

"It was such a sweet shift in our relationships because originally, it was all pranks and teasing each other," she told Allure in 2015. "And here I am pregnant, so it's like pulling out my chair and just making sure I have enough water and, 'Are you feeling okay? You look a little peaked.' 'I'm fine.' "

"Danny and I are great friends and love each other. What's fun is it's really like a family," Clooney told People in 2016.

"It makes it easy. It's really fun to go, 'Hey, let's do this movie together,'" he added.

"What he's saying is we've just stitched our lives closer together," Roberts said in the same interview. "All these people that come into our lives; my husband, my children, his wife Amal Clooney. We just keep stitching our lives closer together."

Clooney told E! News in 2015 that Roberts and Amal met when the actors were filming "Money Monster" together.

"She and Amal and I went out to dinner the other night. It was so much fun to have her meet my wife and have both of them be such good friends and hit it off so well," he said.

Roberts raved about Amal afterward.

"Oh yes, George doesn't need my approval, but I am quite enamored of her," she told Extra in 2015.

Clooney revealed that Alexander and Ella, the 5-year-old twins he has with his wife Amal Clooney, call Roberts "Auntie Juju" during a 2022 interview with "Today."

The kids and Amal also helped keep Roberts company during the filming of "Ticket to Paradise" when she missed her family.

"We started in Hamilton Island, with all these wild birds, and Julia had the house down just below Amal and me and the kids. I would come out in the early mornings and be like, 'Caa-caa,' and Julia would come out and be like, 'Caa-caa.' And then we'd bring her down a cup of coffee," Clooney told the New York Times in 2022.

Moviegoers enjoy the on-screen sparks between the two A-liters, but the actors told The New York Times in 2022 that they struggled with an on-screen kiss in "Ticket to Paradise."

When talking about any kissing in their new rom-com, Roberts confirmed, "One kiss."

"Yeah. I told my wife, 'It took 80 takes.' She was like, 'What the hell?'" Clooney said.

"It took 79 takes of us laughing and then the one take of us kissing," Roberts added.

"Ticket to Paradise" features a scene full of improvised jokes that took some people on the set of the rom-com by surprise.

"Julia would take everything too far. I will tell you," Clooney said on SiriusXM's "The Jess Cagle Show" in October 2022. "George has no feelings," Julia responded.

According to the stars, fellow actors in the scene were not ready for the harsh jokes between the close friends.

"The funny thing is you could tell by the background artists who were standing around us when either of us took it too far. 'Cuz they would react," Clooney said.

Clooney spoke about his respect for Roberts in a speech at the 2013 BAFTAS. He threw in a nod to their teasing.

"It's very hard for me to be just straight nice because she'll get me later," he began. "But (she is) just an amazing mother, an amazing wife and a great, great friend. It's really an honor to have her here."

Roberts called Clooney an "exemplary humanitarian" at the same ceremony.