The director who came to blows with Brad Pitt: “A stupid, shaming provocation”
Moviemaking is a stressful business fraught with pitfalls, differing opinions, contrasting styles, and temperamental creative people giving everything to realise their visions on-screen. Naturally, sometimes all these opposing forces can cause fireworks on a set, and nowhere is this more likely to occur than in the relationship between an actor and their director. In fact, making a film can reduce even the most levelheaded person to a screaming maniac ready to fight a co-worker – and that’s exactly what happened when Brad Pitt and his fearless leader hurled chairs at each other in a rage.
In the three years between his breakthrough role in Thelma & Louise and signing up for the romantic western Legends of the Fall, Pitt’s star rose incredibly quickly. He seized upon the buzz attached to his name and made eight movies in that short period, building up to a lead role in the bona fide hit Interview with the Vampire. By the time he got to the table read for Legends, though, something didn’t feel right about it to Pitt – and he tried to quit the picture.
In his memoir Hits, Flops, and Other Illusions, director Ed Zwick revealed that he knew his star was uneasy with the movie when the cast gathered to run through the script in a cold, sterile conference room. Therefore, he wasn’t exactly surprised when Pitt’s agent called afterwards to say his client intended to drop out of the movie. Zwick’s producing partner Marshall Herskovitz convinced the young star to stay, but the first warning sign was already there for Zwick that this production wouldn’t be a cakewalk.
“It was never mentioned again,” Zwick wrote, “but it was the first augury of the deeper springs of emotion roiling inside Brad. He seems easygoing at first, but he can be volatile when riled, as I was to be reminded more than once as shooting began and we took each other’s measure.”
Throughout production, the Glory director claimed he had to continually try to draw emotion out of Pitt because he was afraid that his choice to play his character very internally would come across as blank on-screen. “Brad would get edgy whenever he was about to shoot a scene that required him to display deep emotion,” Zwick confirmed. “Brad had grown up with men who held their emotions in check; I believed the point of the novel was that a man’s life was the sum of his griefs.”
Unfortunately, though, the more Zwick pushed and cajoled Pitt to make his emotions bigger, the more the actor resisted. “There’s a bright line between strong direction and dominance, especially when a male director is directing a male star,” Zwick explained. “At times, it risks becoming what a shrink and friend once called ‘an issue of phallic identity’—in other words, dick-measuring.”
To the dismay of the entire cast and crew of Legends of the Fall, Zwick didn’t back off in his efforts to draw Pitt into a rawer performance, and Pitt largely refused to take his direction. It all built to an almighty explosion when a frustrated Zwick purposely called Pitt out in front of everyone by giving him a loud piece of direction. Pitt charged back at him, telling the director to “back off.”
In hindsight, Zwick admitted that the smart thing to do would have to tell the crew to take five while he and Pitt talked things over. Instead, he admitted, “I was feeling bloody-minded, and not about to relent. I was angry at Brad for not trusting me to influence his performance…But Brad wasn’t about to give in without a fight.”
Suddenly, the two men began screaming obscenities and throwing furniture at each other, with Zwick confessing, “I don’t know who yelled first, who swore, or who threw the first chair. Me, maybe? But when we looked up, the crew had disappeared.”
Amazingly, it wasn’t like Zwick and Pitt learned their lesson after this unfortunate incident and resolved to kiss and make up. “This wasn’t the last time it happened,” Zwick lamented. “Eventually, the crew grew accustomed to our dustups and would walk away and let us have it out.”
Zwick claimed that he and Pitt harboured no hard feelings for each other despite all their fighting because, as he put it, “It was never personal.” He believed Pitt was 100% committed to his role and simply wanted to do his best, and even admitted that most of the issues probably stemmed from him being a control freak.
“I, on the other hand, am a movie director masquerading as a rational human being,” Zwick wrote with biting wit. “I present myself as a mensch, a thoughtful, collegial guy who wants everybody’s opinion while, in fact, I am Ahab in a baseball cap. I want it done exactly as I asked, and I want it now.”
