While Matt Damon makes the rounds promoting Christopher Nolan‘s “The Odyssey,” one of the stops on his press tour was Amy Poehler’s “s Good Hang podcast.
During his conversation with the “Saturday Night Live” alum, she told Damon that that they shared a connection, with George Clooney at its epicentre
Neither Poehler Nor Damon Is Fond of Pranks
“We have a fun thing — me, you and Clooney,” Poehler told Damon during his appearance, per Entertainment Weekly.
As Poehler recalled, she and Tina Fey poked fun at Clooney during one of their Golden Globes hosting stints. That led him to retaliate in the most Clooney-esque way possible — with one of his epic pranks.
“I’ve said this to his face, I’m not talking behind his back: I don’t like pranks,” Poehler told Damon. “I don’t like it, it makes me stressed.”
Damon admitted he felt the same way. “I’m not a prank guy either,” he said, but added of Clooney: “He loves them enough for all of us.”
Clooney Stole Matt Damon’s Identity to Prank Poehler
In one of their Golden Globe bits, Poehler recalled that she and Fey delivered a joke about Clooney’s movie “Gravity,” jokingly describing it as “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.”
During that same monologue, they also took a poke at Damon.
“We made a joke that now that you were on TV, you’re basically a ‘garbage person’ because you were just there for TV and you weren’t in the movie section anymore,” Poehler told Damon. “And you, of course, laughed and played along with it.”
A ‘Strongly Worded Letter’ From Matt Damon
According to Poehler, a few days after the Globes both she and Fey received a “strongly worded letter” on stationery embossed with Damon’s name, insisting that their joke had hurt his feelings.
Believing that Damon really was upset with them, both Fey and Poehler sent Damon apology notes, each accompanied by a fruit basket.
Damon admitted he was confused when he received them. “The way I found out — and by the way, the only reason I found out — was because you guys sent me some, like, fruit baskets or something. And I was like, I was so bewildered.”
Poehler also explained they suspected they might be on the receiving end of a practical joke, but just in case it wasn’t “we were covering our bases,” she said.
Clooney Strikes Again
When Damon called Fey to ask about the fruit basket, Clooney became the prime suspect. “She lived right down the street from me at that time,” Damon recalled. “And then we, you know, we put it together pretty quickly.”
At that point, Damon said that he “immediately knew” Clooney had made bogus stationery with his name on it, just so he could prank Fey and Poehler.
As he said, he suspects the two weren’t the only ones to receive a faux letter from “Matt Damon.”
“I have no idea how many letters are out there, to how many people,” he admitted.
