George Clooney surprisingly had a few choice words for a couple of Hollywood A-list actors. The 52 year-old features on the front cover of 'Esquire' magazine for it's December issue and he didn't sugar coat any part of the interview.

George Clooney
Clooney's comments have attracted a lot of attention

In the candid piece, Clooney seemed to attack Australian actor Russell Crowe, who 8 years previously criticised George for selling out in a GQ interview from 05'.

Clooney told the mag, "He picked a fight with me. He started it for no reason at all," referring to Crowe. "He put out this thing saying, 'George Clooney, Harrison Ford, and Robert De Niro are sellouts.'.. He really went after me. And so I sent him a note going, 'Dude, the only people who succeed when two famous people are fighting is People magazine. What the f**k is wrong with you?'"

The 'ocean's Eleven' actor did reveal Crowe tried to patch things up, but Clooney was having none of it.

"He was gonna see me at the Golden Globes 'cause he was nominated for Cinderella Man," he explained.

"So he sends me a disc of his music and a thing of his poetry. I think he said, 'I was all misquoted,' and I was like, 'Yeah, yeah. Whatever.' I did take it with me to the BAFTAs, but I didn't win. I might have used it if I had won. I was nominated for four!"

Russell Crowe
Crowe received the harshest criticism 

Clooney was a lot less direct with insulting another major player in Hollywood, Leonardo DiCaprio.

The 'Monuments Men' actor recalled playing basketball with Leo in Cabo San Lucas and said, "You know, I can play... I also know that you don't talk s--t unless you can play. And the thing about playing Leo is you have all these guys talking s--t."

Clooney's team of 50 year-olds beat DiCaprio and his friends "three straight: 11-0, 11-0, 11-0."

He then sneakily jabbed Leo by saying, "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 if Leo has someone like that."

Since the interview, Clooney's publicist has clarified to E!News, what he actually meant by the apparent derogatory comments. The Leo comments were all made in fun about basketball," the attorney said. "Not about Leo's life. The writer and George were laughing about basketball buddies."

However the publicist also confirmed, "As for the Russell Crowe story. George was asked about it and told the truth."

Leonardo DiCaprio
Clooney's attorney claimed his comments about DiCaprio were misunderstood