The movie line Brad Pitt was forced into saying: “He didn’t really dig it, but he can’t say shit”
As one of the biggest, highest-paid, and most powerful stars in Hollywood, Brad Pitt shouldn’t really be in a position where he has to do things that he doesn’t want to do. However, even the industry’s longest-tenured A-listers can succumb to something as simple as peer pressure.
He’s an Academy Award-winning actor, an Academy Award-winning producer, and a performer who commands a salary that runs into the tens of millions of dollars per picture, but Pitt fell victim to one of the most tried and trusted methods of convincing someone to go against their better judgment.
One of the most fascinating things about his career is how hard he tried to avoid the very things that 99.99% of other actors would kill for. He’s a handsome lad, carries himself with a natural charisma, and oozes charm, but because of that, Pitt generally had no interest in becoming a prototypical star.
In most cases, anyone who possesses those qualities and the other intangibles that separate actors from superstars would launch themselves into blockbusters, franchises, and high-concept movies that are guaranteed to do big business. Sure, he’s done a few of them, but nowhere near as many as you’d think.
It must be a horrible, horrible curse to be really, really, ridiculously good-looking and have studio executives, producers, and filmmakers throwing piles of cash at your feet in an attempt to have you trade on being really, really, ridiculously good-looking, but somehow, Pitt has just about managed to scrape by.
On one occasion, though, he had no choice. As Quentin Tarantino put it when they were shooting Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, “Look, Brad fucking hates talking about his looks.” And yet, in the film, Mike Moh’s Bruce Lee says to the actor’s Cliff Booth, “You’re kind of pretty to be a stuntman,” and he agrees, replying, “Yeah, that’s what they tell me.”
It went against every natural instinct that he had, so why did he do it? It wasn’t because of his friendship with Tarantino, but rather the fact that the line itself originated from his idol, an actor he’d waited his entire life to meet, someone he’d grown up obsessively watching, and who was intended to be a member of the Once Upon a Time in Hollywood ensemble before they passed away.
After reading the script, Burt Reynolds had a suggestion for Tarantino. “He’s good, he’s really good, but he is the best-looking stuntman I’ve ever seen,” the Smokey and the Bandit legend offered. “You should have somebody say, ‘You’re a little bit pretty for a stunt guy.'” The director thought that was a “fucking neat idea,” and he knew Pitt wouldn’t say no.
“As soon as I tell him that Burt fucking Reynolds came up with the line, well, he had to grin and bear it,” the two-time Academy Award winner remarked. “He really didn’t dig it, but he can’t say shit!” Under normal circumstances, he wouldn’t have said it. However, since it was his hero’s idea, he couldn’t say no.
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