The “mushy” movie Brad Pitt will always regret: “I would have fought against the cheese”
In 2007, Brad Pitt starred in the epic western The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, which was an epic in the sense that it was really good, but also really long, and found Pitt playing the alliterative outlaw.
It is widely regarded as one of the best westerns of recent times, and it was surprising that he would be up for a movie like this, given what happened another time he stepped into a pair of cowboy boots, which was 13 years prior to Jesse James, in Legends of the Fall.
Set in the early 20th century, the film follows the lives of three brothers, Pitt, Aidan Quinn, and Henry Thomas, as they experience the trials and tribulations of history. The project was helmed by Edward Zwick, who had previously found success with another historical drama, Glory, which set him up as the perfect man for the job; however, Pitt had other ideas.
In an interview with Vanity Fair that was supposed to promote the film, the star ended up divulging that he and the director had fallen out behind the scenes over the fact that Pitt thought he knew how the film was going to look, but was alarmed to find that Zwick had removed what he considered to be key scenes from the final cut, and he was not happy about this.
“By taking out so much as they did, the movie becomes too mushy,” he said, “’There’s no space in between the mush. If I’d known where it was going to end up, I would have really fought against the cheese. The Kraft Macaroni Deluxe dinner. The movie’s not cheesy by any means. This is a good movie. There are just moments where, if it was reduced to that, if that’s all we were going to see of him, I would have whittled it down.”
The scenes in question concerned his character, Tristan Ludlow, who Pitt wanted to be seen wrestling with the guilt of his past actions. Zwick disagreed and left them on the cutting room floor, marking one of the many reasons the two fell out so badly on set, including to the point where they threw furniture at each other during a heated argument.
Pitt had such a rough time on Legends of the Fall that he tried to quit, but in the end, he didn’t do too badly out of it.
While the film didn’t set critical minds ablaze, it did well at the box office and was also nominated for three Oscars, with cinematographer John Toll emerging victorious in his category. The actor himself was even nominated for a Golden Globe for his performance, while Zwick picked up a ‘Best Director’ nod.
You’ll have to watch the movie for yourself to decide who made the right call, but one thing we can say for certain is that this film damaged Pitt and Zwick’s relationship beyond repair, such that the two haven’t worked together again since and likely never will.
