Before his two Oscars, before the magazine covers and red carpets, George Clooney slept on a friend’s couch. Out of work and newly separated from his first wife, Talia Balsam, he shared an apartment with another actor who had something he didn’t: a cat.
The roommate, identified by several media outlets as actor Richard Kind, became obsessed with his pet’s health. The animal seemed unable to relieve itself in the litter box. Concerned, he took it to the vet, who prescribed laxatives.
What his friend didn’t know was that Clooney cleaned the litter box every day, in secret, before anyone could see him. The cat was perfectly healthy. The only missing bowel movement was evidence of a prank that had been weeks in the making.
Then Clooney put the finishing touch on the prank. One night, he did his business in the cat’s litter box, letting his friend believe that the laxative had finally worked and that the animal had recovered.
Years later, by then one of Hollywood’s biggest stars, Clooney told the story laughing on Howard Stern’s show. The same man who would fill screens and win statuettes had begun his acting career secretly cleaning someone else’s cat’s litter box.
Fame comes to everyone differently. For Clooney, it began with a borrowed couch and a prank no one forgot.