George Clooney: "I’ve been in some relationships where I’ve felt terribly alone"

“I’ve had some easy and natural, made-sense breakups as well as some rough ones. I deal with them the same way we all do: I’m successful with some and not so successful with others.

“I don’t think my experiences are any different than anybody else’s, they’ve just been amplified a little more.”

Meanwhile, the silver fox seems to be having a few thoughts about his own mortality.

“I’m old,” he jokes. “I’m kind of comfortable with getting older because it’s better than the other option, which is being dead. So I’ll take getting older.

“It’s an interesting thing to be able to watch yourself grow older on screen.

“I was watching Up In The Air and I thought, ‘Jesus, who’s the old, gray-haired guy?’ And it was me.

“I never wear make-up for movies and now it’s starting to show.

“It’s funny because earlier in my career I was working with a lot of actresses who were my age or older and most actors work with actresses who are considerably younger.

“So people always thought I was older anyway and I’ve been going through this thing with people thinking I’m about 60.”

He may be ageing but his love of pranks never gets old. His latest victim was Ocean's 11 co-star Matt Damon who visited his Lake Como home over the summer while trying to shift the 30 pounds he gained filming The Informant.

While working out twice a day and eating salads George hired someone to take in the waistband of Matt's pants every day by an eighth of an inch.

“He couldn’t understand how he seemed to be gaining weight while he was trying so hard to lose it,” he grins.

His next victim? Brad Pitt. “I’m working on a prank and I need some help,” he admits. “Something evil has to happen.”