‘A River Runs Through It’: the critically acclaimed performance that Brad Pitt hated
Approaching graduation from the University of Missouri, where he studied journalism in the 1980s, Brad Pitt felt unsettled, sensing something more fulfilling on the horizon, specifically on the west coast. As a long-time film fanatic, Pitt regarded the wondrous medium as “a portal into different worlds” during his youth, but it wasn’t until the closing weeks of his tenure at college that he decided to drop the books and set off for the Hollywood Hills.
“I grew up in Oklahoma and Missouri, and I just loved film,” Pitt told Backstage in 2012. “My folks would take us to the drive-in on summer nights, and we’d sit on the hood of the car. I just had this profound love for storytelling. I think it’s just an amazing thing we get to do. We’re so complex, mysteries to ourselves; we’re difficult to each other. And then here’s this storytelling that reminds us we’re all the same. I consider it such a privilege.”
Pitt took a chance in the acting world, and after a brief spell on the west coast, he successfully auditioned for several small acting roles that snowballed through to the early 1990s. Following a pivotal role in Ridley Scott’s 1991 movie Thelma & Louise, Pitt soared through the decade with stand-out performances in Legends of the Fall, Se7ven, Seven Years in Tibet, Meet Joe Black and Fight Club.
Admirably, Pitt has generally sought roles based on artistic merit rather than selling out on more commercial jobs. For this, Pitt thanks his insatiable zeal for film; he always wants to tell a story worth telling: something provocative and insightful.
Later in his conversation with Backstage, Pitt was asked whether he ever felt underrated as a quality actor due to his status as an A-list pin-up. “No, I thought I could always get there or make that turn as long as they let me stay in the game,” he answered. “Listen, I’ve been pretty fortunate. And if I’ve been underrated, it’s actually been something I’ve been able to work with; I can surprise people. It sets me up to exceed expectations, so I don’t mind.”
The ever-humble Pitt appears healthily aware of his fortune and talents. While he can celebrate his success over the past three decades, Pitt is also highly self-critical – as any motivated artist should be.
In 1992, just as Pitt’s career began to gain traction, he was cast in A River Runs Through It, a critically lauded movie directed by Robert Redford. The movie sees Pitt star as Paul McLean opposite Craig Sheffer, who played his brother Norman, with the siblings enjoying an idyllic life before splitting for new pastures. The plot doesn’t really move on from there, instead revelling in the subtlety of the human condition rather than exploring the outer realms of reality.
Critics adored the picture, but it didn’t land well with one of the production’s stars. For Pitt, the movie may well have been good, but his role in it was far from the standard he would later set for himself: “My performance in A River Runs Through. It was weak. I was just bad,” Pitt told the LA Times despite the role’s success.
He continued to admit that Redford’s deft editing skills made the film seamless but maintained that his performance was off-kilter. “I had an ultimate respect for Redford, and so I just felt this pressure not to let him down, and ultimately that gets in the way,” Pitt added. “So what do you learn? Just do your thing.”
Pitt remembered the Redford collaboration as a crucial moment in his development as an actor, citing the legend’s detailed advice. “He was a great director,” Pitt told Collider. “I was doing something in the scene, and he just came up and said, ‘You’re sighing.’ and I said, ‘Yeah.’ And he said, ‘Don’t do that. When you do that, you let the power out. You let the water out of the scene.'”
Watch the trailer for A River Runs Through It below.
