The classic TV show Brad Pitt wasn’t good enough to be cast in: “He wasn’t funny”
Few things are more excruciating than someone who’s not funny trying to convince a room full of people otherwise, with the second-hand embarrassment nothing short of palpable. For actors, the equivalent is probably auditioning for a comedy and failing, something Brad Pitt experienced in his early days.
While the erstwhile A-lister has displayed strong comic chops and timing in a string of disparate capers, such as Guy Ritchie’s Snatch, the Coen brothers’ Burn After Reading, Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, and even David Fincher’s Fight Club, those gifts clearly needed to be refined.
Pitt always stood a shot at making it in the industry because he was too damned handsome not to, but he still faced plenty of setbacks. Despite training under Roy London, who was instrumental in launching countless successful careers, his attempt to land a part in Jodie Foster’s Academy Award-winning The Accused didn’t go too well when the casting agent asked him if he’d considered acting lessons.
The easiest way for a young actor to get their reps in is to land a string of guest spots in popular TV shows, something Pitt embraced. In 1987, the year of his screen debut, he appeared in five different series, including ratings hits Growing Pains and Dallas. Unfortunately, he left funny bones decidedly un-tickled when he tried out for what was the most-watched show on the planet in its pomp.
Cheers only became more popular throughout its 11-season run, with the first season’s average viewership of just under 11 million peaking at almost 35 million during the eighth season, and it never dipped below 20 million between the fourth and eleventh. Needless to say, any actor would kill for even a single-episode arc, but Pitt’s lack of comic ability failed to make an impression on the powers-that-be.
Casting director Jeff Greenberg earned 14 Primetime Emmy nominations and one win in the ‘Outstanding Casting’ category and was involved in titles like Modern Family, Frasier, Ugly Betty, and Top Gun. He clearly knew a talented performer when he saw one, and Pitt left him completely nonplussed.
“My only note was, ‘Not funny,'” he recalled to People. “For the part, he wasn’t funny. He’s been funny since.” With the benefit of hindsight, Greenberg admitted that Pitt was by far the biggest name he’d ever rejected for a show he was working on, but he wasn’t exactly a superstar when he flunked his audition to visit the bar where everybody knows your name.
The life of a slumming actor is a difficult one full of rejection, and even those who make it to the very top of the industry, like Pitt, spend years having doors slammed shut in their faces before catching a break. He may not have been good enough for Cheers, but he did alright for himself in the long run.
