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George Clooney, Julia Roberts reflect on scene that left co-stars ‘shockingly embarrassed’

A bit of improv from the veteran actors left their younger "Ticket to Paradise" castmates cringing. 

George Clooney and Julia Roberts have nearly 80 years of combined acting experience between them.

But no amount of big-screen history or past box-office success was enough to convince their younger “Ticket to Paradise” co-stars that they really knew what they were doing in one scene from the rom-com.

At least according to the pair.

"That was some of our best acting," Roberts joked when she and Clooney recalled the scene during their recent sit-down with TODAY's Hoda Kotb

Skip ahead to the 2:28 mark in the official trailer to get a glimpse of exactly what she meant.

In "Ticket to Paradise," the stars play divorced parents eager to prove the downsides of matrimony to their soon-to-wed daughter and her fiancé (played by Kaitlyn Dever and Maxime Bouttier). And in the scene that left their 20-something co-stars questioning everything, the A-listers improvise some truly cringeworthy dance moves.

"The young kids just were so, they were so ... they were shockingly embarrassed," Clooney, 61, said. He then reenacted their jaw-dropped response to what can only be called his drunken-dad dance routine.

According to Roberts, 54, "They were stunned. They were paralyzed." 

But apparently, they weren't laughing at the seemingly hilarious setup.

"We thought we were really funny, and they didn’t," Clooney continued. He then turned to Roberts and added, "Remember they were just kind of staring at us like we were in the zoo? We’re like, ‘Pretty funny, huh?’ and they’re like, ‘Oh, my God!’"

Both stars laughed as they thought back to just how embarrassed Dever and Bouttier were.

 "You're like, 'You know they’re rolling a camera on you guys, right? Everybody’s gonna see it!'" Roberts said, while looking at Clooney.

But the leading man believes the abashed response they received wasn't just to their not-so-fancy footwork — it was really about what the younger generation took away from it.

"They can see what it’s like to get old," he said. "And it’s terrifying them!"

But Dever had a much kinder recollection of the scene during her own visit to TODAY.

“I was just truly in awe," she insisted. "George likes to say that we were completely embarrassed by them, but it was actually I was acting embarrassed. But inside I was like, ‘What I’m witnessing right now is epic.’”