Brad Pitt and George Clooney's enduring friendship as they reunite for Wolfs

There's being an actor in Hollywood and being a Hollywood star, and few people define this phrase more than George Clooney and Brad Pitt.

The actors reunite after 16 years in Wolfs, Apple TV+'s black comedy about rival fixers who are forced to come together when they're hired for the same job. The movie has been heralded as a rip-roaring action flick by critics, with many saying it benefits well from Clooney and Pitt's magnetic presence onscreen and their winning partnership.

What it also benefits from is the actors friendship off screen too. Theirs is a friendship that has remained strong for decades, with the pair using it to great effect when engaging in back and forth banter in their new film — their first since they starred in the Coen Brothers' Burn After Reading.

Clooney and Pitt have both been at the top of Hollywood's A-list at one time, dominating the Showbiz world professionally and personally thanks to their movie star status.

There's a shared understanding that they have because of the dizzying levels of fame they've experienced, yes they have money, power and fame but they are also always in the public eye and that's something not many people can relate to.

Pitt has spoken of how Clooney has helped him navigate that over the years, telling GQ in a recent interview: "I once equated celebrity to — one, you’re being hunted... George is going to understand something that no one else is going to understand, that we don’t even have to speak about. There’s a comfort in that. There’s another smaller tribe that erupts from that because of the pressures and the struggles that one will have in their own life."

Reflecting on reuniting with his friend for Wolfs, the actor went on: "When this thing came up I thought, Ah man, I’ve known this guy since the ’90s and been through so much life at this point and so many twists and curves and turns and there’s something just, I don’t know, I felt there was something really lovely just that we could do something shoulder to shoulder."

Read more: Wolfs proves George Clooney and Brad Pitt still have movie star 'magic', critics say

In the same interview Clooney admitted that Hollywood doesn't make "stars the way the studio system used to", where a film could be sold on the strength of its lead star alone, and he felt that he and Pitt "were at the very end of that."

The actors have a long history together on screen and off as they have starred in eight films and plays over the decades, with their friendship being taken to the screen to huge effect in 2001's Ocean's Eleven. The film spawned two sequels in 2004 and 2007, and the pair also worked together in Confessions of a Dangerous Mind.

Wolfs director Jon Watts wanted Clooney and Pitt to work on the action thriller "because they're such good friends in real life" and that would translate well on screen, he told Entertainment Weekly.

"It creates this sort of need in the audience where you just want them to be friends. You're like, can't you see they're perfect for each other?'," the filmmaker added.

It's evident from the way they talk about each other and joke around publicly that they get on well, with the pair telling Extra TV that the secret to their friendship is they "don’t talk for fifteen years". Pitt joked that they've "actually only been friends for about three [years] of that" and Clooney quipped "the rest of the time we don’t have to speak."

But a source has told People that the pair are "forever friends" and always will be: "They like and respect each other no matter how many years in between gigs together. They go way back, and were happy to work together on this film."

Having one Hollywood star of their calibre is often reason enough for people to buy a ticket, but to see the two of them back together again —when they're such good friends in real life to boot— makes Wolfs a must watch.

Wolfs is out in cinemas now, and it will be released on Apple TV+ on Friday, 27 September.