‘Heathers’: The 1980s cult classic Brad Pitt bombed his audition for
Before Brad Pitt was Brad Pitt, he was just another struggling actor, trying to find his place in Hollywood.
As the 1980s saw a handful of successful stars make it as part of a new generation of actors, affectionately known as the Brat Pack, Pitt tried his hand at getting into the in-crowd, but at first he failed to succeed.
While actors like Emilio Estevez and Judd Nelson attracted the label, becoming some of the biggest stars of the era, Pitt was relegated to small bit parts. Inevitably, his star power wasn’t something he possessed straight away. How the tables turned.
Once he bagged some minor parts in well-loved movies like Thelma and Louise and True Romance, however, he started his swift ascent to the top of Hollywood’s ranks, boldly outperforming all of his Brat Pack competitors.
His major fucking breakthrough came in 1994 with his role in Interview with the Vampire, but it could’ve come several years sooner if he had given a better audition for a film that would soon turn into a coming-of-age dark comedy classic. Believe it or not, Pitt auditioned to play JD in Heathers, a role that, of course, went to Christian Slater, who played the homicidal teenager to goddamn perfection.
Heathers was slightly controversial upon its release because of its bold satire of teen hierarchies and humorous explorations of themes like homosexuality, suicide, and murder. It has endured all these years later, though, even spawning a popular musical (although it doesn’t exactly reach the heights of the black comedy found in Slater and Winona Ryder’s performances).
Imagine Pitt in the role – it’s hard to picture the young star getting his start in such an offbeat comedy, but screenwriter Daniel Waters didn’t think that the budding actor had what it took to play the character. Only a few years later would Pitt prove to be a leading star, but clearly those years between Heathers and Interview with the Vampire were a crucial time which saw him scrub up on his acting skills.
Talking to Yahoo, Waters said, “We did a reading of the script, and we asked one of our actress friends, who was going to read one of the roles, ‘We can’t find anyone for the role of JD, can you bring someone from your acting class?’ So this pimply… [still] good-looking [guy] with a laconic drawl, he does the JD role. He was all right. He came up to me afterwards like, ‘Hey man, I know I’m not anybody, but for what it’s worth, that’s brilliant.’”
Waters didn’t think this young actor was going to become anyone significant, but he never forgot his response following the audition. Thus, years later, when Pitt became an internationally renowned Oscar-winning star, Waters connected the dots. He had to contact his brother, Mark (who directed Freaky Friday and Mean Girls), to let him know that their long-running joke had actually been formed by something uttered by none other than Mr Pitt.
“I called my brother immediately and was like, ‘Dude, you’re not gonna believe this…’ The ‘I know I’m not anybody’ guy was Brad Pitt!” Evidently, in Hollywood, you never know who you’re going to meet – they might just become a huge star.
