Brad Pitt names his favourite Stanley Kubrick movie: “Always cracks me up”
Every actor has a unique list of their favourite movies, but somehow the same titles seem to come up again and again. Citizen Cane, The Godfather, 2001: A Space Odyssey and Taxi Driver are some of the biggest contenders for the list. However, once in a while, a Hollywood star can surprise us with their choices. And, Brad Pitt’s small but eclectic list seems to be one of those.
A leading man and heartthrob from the ‘90s through til today, Pitt is known for his seemingly nonchalant approach to his roles. The slick personas he embodies in the likes of Fight Club, Se7en and, more recently, Once Upon A Time in Hollywood… have given audiences the impression that he approaches his own life in much the same way, with a cool and casual assuredness. So it would be easy to expect his film choices to be much the same, however, the four films he names are a much more unique and layered mix.
The first film on his list is one that “holds a special place” because it was an R-rated film that he snuck into when he was too young, an act which seems to be a rite of passage for most actors and directors. “I loved Saturday Night Fever as a kid. I couldn’t believe people talked that way. It was just a whole new culture I didn’t understand.” Clearly, it wasn’t just the illicit experience of sneaking in to watch the film, but the new world it opened up to a young Pitt that had him enamoured.
“The films on my playlist today would be Dog Day Afternoon. [One Flew Over the] Cuckoo’s Nest was a huge one with me.” The next two on Pitt’s list maybe aren’t as surprising. At least in that Dog Day Afternoon is an Al Pacino movie, and many actors seem to have at least one of his on their list. Yet, it’s a surprising choice given its subject matter of a manwho robs a bank to pay for the gender trasition of his partner. Cuckoo’s Nest probably isn’t surprising at all, especially for fans of Pitt. He’s known to always have this one his list, even going so far as to be outraged that many younger people nowadays haven’t seen the Jack Nicholson classic.
And, of course, an actor’s list of favourite films wouldn’t be complete without a nod to Stanley Kubrick. But where most name 2001 or The Shining, Pitt goes a little more off piste, “I would say Dr. Strangelove always cracks me up.” Perhaps not Kubrick’s most ambitious or revolutionary films, it is without a doubt his funniest.
A black comedy sature on the cold war and nuclear arms race of the 1960s, it sees Peter Sellers play three different characters with majorly different roles in a nuclear crisis. It’s also one of the rare comedies that manages to make its most serious actors do some of the most comedic work, like Sterling Hayden as the crazed Jack D. Ripper. Its a movie that you can imagine Pitt sitting on his couch having a chuckle at every now and then, but perhaps not so much one that you can see play out in his more nonchalant performances as an actor.
