George Clooney reveals how he tricks his children into behaving at Christmas

The actor opened up about his parenting skills in a rare virtual interview about his children

El actor George Clooney (Getty Images)

George Clooney gave a rare insight into his parenting tactics this week.

The 59-year-old actor gave a virtual interview for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, where he revealed the prank he plays on his twins, Alexander and Ella, both three, to get them to behave around Christmas.

Clooney - who is married to Human Rights Lawyer Amal Clooney, 42 - admitted he does impressions of Father Christmas outside their bedroom door.

He added: "When they’re asleep in the morning — they sleep in the same bedroom — they start to make noises and you can hear the two of them getting at each other, and I stand outside the door and I go 'Oh hi Santa!'

“And I say, ‘What are you doing here Santa?’ and [Santa] says, ‘Oh, I’m just making sure that the kids are being good kids.'

“And you can hear them going, "We are Santa! We are!" Then [Santa] leaves and they come out and they’re unbelievably well behaved."

Clooney also revealed that, despite his best efforts his children speak using more British slang than American.

He added: “I'm desperately trying not to make them little Brits. It's not a jumper, it's a sweater. It's not a boot, it's the trunk. It's not the pavement, it's the sidewalk… and they were writing out their note [to Santa] and I said, 'So then we're going to leave him cookies, and my son goes, 'No, it's milk and mince pie.'"

The actor is currently in London to promote his new film, The Midnight Sky, but the drive-in premiere was recently cancelled due to coronavirus.

He said: “I landed and they came out and said, we just got to Tier 3, you have to go quarantine for two weeks in your house.”

Clooney added that he was spending lockdown with his wife and two children, and in another recent interview with the Howard Stern Show he revealed they have a live-in nanny to.

The actor added: “In some ways the lockdown has been funny because I've been back doing the things I used to do along time ago. I do seven loads of wash a day, you know, I'm mopping the floor, I'm the chef of the house.”