George Clooney has moulded an image of himself as the nice guy around Hollywood, regularly pitching in on humanitarian projects around the world and hosting and attending fundraisers and the likes for example, but it turns out that Mr Nice has a few bad bones in his body too. In a no-holds-barred interview with Esquire for their December issue, the actor took some unexpected verbal shots at Russell Crowe and Leonardo Dicaprio.

George Clooney BAFTA-LA
No more Mr. Nice guy

Crowe and Clooney apparently have a long-standing feud, one that Crowe attempted to bring to an end, only for Clooney to laugh off his attempts at reconciliation. Their beef began when Crowe called the 52-year-old Clooney a "sellout" some years ago, with Clooney saying that he has shot down every attempt to win his favour since then.

“The truth is that (Crowe) did send me a book of poems to apologize for insulting the sh*t out of me,” Clooney recalled, going on to remember a few of the insults hurled his way by Crowe, "Frank Sinatra wannabe" being the one that stuck the most. He continue, “He really went after me. I think he said ‘I was misquoted,’ and I was like, ‘Yeah, yeah whatever.’”

The trash talk didn't end there though, as he moved on to take a swipe at fellow A-lister Leonardo DiCaprio, in particular, taking aim at his friends. Recalling a pickup basketball game he and his friends had with DiCaprio and some his buddies, Clooney described how they spent the whole match running their mouths off, threatening to "kick ass."

It was Clooney who did the ass kicking though, the actor remembered, beating DiCaprio and co. 11-0. He told the glossy, “the discrepancy between their game and how they talked about their game made me think of how important it is to have someone in your life to tell you what’s what. I’m not sure Leo has someone like that."

Leonardo DiCaprioRussell Crowe
Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe probably won't be on Clooney's Christmas card list this year

Ashton Kutcher was next in his aim, in particular because of his use of Twitter - something that Clooney won't be getting involved with any time soon. He said, “I mean, when you see, like, Ashton Kutcher coming out and going, you know, ‘Everybody leave Joe Paterno alone,’ or whatever he said, you just go ‘Fifteen minutes longer (in the) thought process and probably you wouldn’t have done that.’”

He did have a few words of praise to hand out though, particularly for those who don't use Twitter. Bill Murray gains Clooney's approval and Brad Pitt has a place in Clooney's heart thanks to his work ethic, as well as his absence from Twitter. He went on to praise Pitt for "carrying" recent film World War Z "to the finish line," after the film went through countless reshoots. The two heartthrobs worked together on the Oceans Eleven reboot and have subsequently remained friends since then.

The full interview is available in the December issue of Esquire magazine.

George Clooney
At least he had some nice words to say