The one movie line that Brad Pitt will never forget: “I just thought it was so beautiful”
The filmography of Brad Pitt reels out as a list of movies of the highest quality. From his remarkable efforts in the 1990s, like A River Runs Through It, Seven and Fight Club, to his excellent performances of the 21st century, including Inglorious Basterds and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Pitt has nearly always delivered the acting goods.
It’s been such a triumphant career that it is easy to forget the missteps. So few and far between, there have still been some roles that have left the actor red-faced. However, there is one movie which perhaps undeservedly gets labelled a flop.
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford is one movie that will live long in his memory. Not only because it took a bit of a bashing when it arrived on screens, or because he considers it one of the best he has ever made, but because of one line in the picture.
Given the countless iconic roles that Brad Pitt has performed, it’s interesting to think about which character he has enjoyed playing the most or, even better, which line has stuck with him since reading it. Pitt was once asked in an interview with PBS about such a topic, but he initially responded by playing down the memorisation of his lines.
“I’m so bad at that. I delete the files when I finish the film, and it just reboots for the next one,” Pitt admitted before referring to an iconic moment from the David Fincher movie Seven, “People still come up to me and yell, ‘What’s in the box?’” However, Pitt seemed to shrug the line off and almost express an annoyance at people’s insistence on its memorable status.
Hard-pressed to find an answer, though, Pitt continued: “I don’t have any one that means anything to me, but I think of the poetry of Jesse James, and there was a line that said, ‘I look at my mean hands and my red face and I wonder about that man who went so wrong.’ I dunno, I just thought it was so beautiful, and I always hear that.”
Pitt’s effort as the outlaw, Jesse James, in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford by Andrew Dominik, is a lesson in an actor truly immersing themselves in a character. There’s an intensity to Pitt’s performance that’s typical of his acting style, and he slowly reveals the inner workings of a man who has been outcast by society, proven by the actor’s favourite line from the film.
Going on to explain how he uses just one line from a script to personify his roles, Pitt said, “It’s funny, with each film, I have one line from the script that I hold onto throughout the film because I hear the character in the one line. It helps me hear the character; I reset the day with that particular line. It helps me keep the character from drifting into some other character.”
“I’m trying to think what it was on Once Upon a Time, and I can’t – you see, I eject,” he added. “I delete, I eject, and I move on. With Ad Astra, we shot before, so that’s two reboots before that.”
Considering his ability to “delete” the scripts from his mind, it’s impressive that one has always stuck with him. It might be because of his affection for the story form from which it came, or simply that the line itself is a wonderful piece of poetry. But, whatever the reason, there’s a good chance that one line won’t just be with him until his dying day, but will be the only one that is.
