Richard Kind Says TSA Stopped Him Over This Prank George Clooney Pulled

Richard Kind and George Clooney have a very special friendship.

Kind, 68, reflected on one of his friend’s practical jokes on the June 9 episode of the Still Here Hollywood Podcast with Steve Kmetko. The host remembered that he recently had Noah Wyle (who starred with Clooney, 64, on ER) on his podcast, and he told a story about Clooney and Kind’s shenanigans.

“There’s a few of them,” Kind said, alluding to Clooney’s infamous reputation as a prankster.

He added, “But you will not hear them from me. You won’t hear them from me for a couple of reasons. Number one, George gets all the publicity he needs. I need a little more. So that’s the first thing. The second thing is nobody tells them funnier than George.” Kind called out the time Clooney used Kind’s cat’s litter box, which “has been told over and over again.”

But Kind went back on his word and told a story of a practical joke he had “forgotten” until recently, joking that it was winning his own SAG Award this year as a member of the Only Murders in the Building cast that reminded him.

“One night, years ago, I have to go to Vegas for some publicity,” the Mad About You star remembered. He was staying at Clooney’s old Los Angeles house, where he often stayed when he visited the city at the time. “So I’m staying at his place, and I have my suitcase downstairs and waiting for the car to come.”

“George, who had been in the kitchen or something like that, sits down at the foot of the stairs, and we’re just chatting. We’re gabbing,” Kind remembered. “And I say, ‘Oh, I forgot something,’ and I go upstairs to get something. I come back downstairs, and then the car comes, and the guy who’s driving the car takes the bag, and he puts it into the trunk, and I get driven to Burbank Airport, I think.”

That’s where Clooney’s prank was revealed. “I go through the TSA line, and they pull me aside and they go, ‘Sir, could you come here, please?’ And I go, ‘Yeah.’ And he opens up the suitcase, and there’s an Oscar and a SAG award that George put in my suitcase as we were waiting to go, and I have to schlep.”

Kind noted that the SAG statue is “very heavy” at “about 12 pounds,” and he doesn’t know how heavy the Oscar is. “I schlep them to Vegas for the weekend,” he said, adding that it made him laugh when the TSA agent opened the case. “It’s a good practical joke,” he added.

The Oscar was likely the one Clooney won in 2006 for his performance in Syriana; he’s since won a second in 2013 for producing Argo with Ben Affleck. Clooney has four SAG Awards, all for his work in the ensemble of ER.

Early in Kind’s career, he was part of Chicago’s Second City Comedy Troupe. In 1987, Kind was cast in a TV pilot called Bennett Brothers; Clooney was cast as the other brother. Though the pilot was never picked up, it was the beginning of their now decades-long friendship.

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In January, Clooney supported Kind in his play All In on Broadway, and months later, Kind attended the opening of Clooney’s play Good Night and Good Luck, the actor’s Broadway debut. At the opening, Kind told PEOPLE of his bestie, “As much as [people] think he’s a great guy, he’s better.”

As for his own career, Kind told Kmetko, “I’m the luckiest guy in the world.”

Source People.com