Brad Pitt picks the actor who dies best on-screen: “He takes a bullet better than anyone I’ve ever seen”
At one stage or another, virtually every actor is going to be killed on-screen. It’s a required part of the job, and some people have even managed to turn it into an art form. Brad Pitt thinks he’s pretty good at it, but even he’s been forced to admit that he’ll never be the best.
Some stars are so protective of their reputations and auras that they’ll flat-out refuse to let their characters be killed. In even more specific cases, it’ll be stipulated that they can’t be captured on camera coming out on the losing end of a fight, not to name any Dwayne Johnsons in particular.
However, Pitt has never been among that number, curating his own legacy of being shuffled off this mortal coil in a myriad of inventive ways. Whether it’s the way he’s annihilated by two cars in Meet Joe Black, being electrocuted in a one-second Deadpool 2 cameo, getting garrotted in The Counselor, or being accidentally shot in the face by George Clooney in Burn After Reading, he’s very familiar with cinematic death.
He’s not quite on the same level as Sean Bean, John Hurt, Christopher Lee, or Danny Trejo, all names who’ve been erased from existence dozens of times through a manner of means to rank among the most-murdered figures in history. However, Pitt maintains that it’s one of his many talents, albeit one that doesn’t get talked about all that often.
“I die really well, by the way,” he admitted, although he was quick to shift the focus to an Academy Award-winning chameleon who does it better than anyone else. “But Gary Oldman is the best.” Oldman has been killed more than two dozen times during his stint in the spotlight, but for Pitt, there’s one specific demise that he’s mastered to an extent he’s adamant can never be matched.
“I’m pretty good, but if you look at what I do and watch Gary Oldman, you’ll say, ‘Yeah, he’s not quite as good and he’s doing Gary Oldman.'” It takes a special sort of cinephile to watch Pitt being killed on-screen and instantly reach the conclusion he’s copying somebody else, but it’s clearly been at the back of his mind whenever a scene requires him to take his final breaths.
Rounding out his appraisal, Pitt stated in no uncertain terms that “Gary Oldman takes a bullet better than anyone I’ve ever seen.” With State of Grace, JFK, True Romance, Sin, Rain Fall, and Guns, Girls and Gambling all providing examples of death by gunfire, it’s not as if there isn’t plenty of evidence littered throughout the decades to back up his assertions.
The unheralded ability to go down in a blaze of bullet-riddled glory is definitely one of the more unique accolades bestowed upon the inimitable Oldman.
