The one role Brad Pitt will always regret turning down
As far as movie stars go, Brad Pitt is considered one of the all-time greats. A Hollywood hunk as well as a genuine acting master, Pitt won the Oscar for ‘Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role’ for his role in the Quentin Tarantino masterpiece, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, and etched his name into cinema history.
Appearing beside the likes of Margot Robbie, Leonardo DiCaprio, Margaret Qualley, Austin Butler, Maya Hawke and Sydney Sweeney, Pitt gave one of the best performances of modern cinema as a chilled-out stuntman who finds himself in the middle of a Manson family murder plot. Pitt, an undisputed icon of Hollywood, also walked away with an Academy Award for his producer role on the Steve McQueen ‘Best Picture’-winner 12 Years a Slave.
Working with the likes of Terry Gilliam, David Fincher, Ridley Scott, Spike Jonze, Steven Soderbergh, Alejandro G Iñárritu, Terrence Malick and Adam McKay, Pitt has teamed up with some of the finest filmmakers of contemporary cinema and has enjoyed many years at the very top of Hollywood stardom. Soon to star in the new Damien Chazelle movie, Babylon alongside Margot Robbie, Tobey Maguire and Samara Weaving, the actor still remains at the very forefront of popular culture.
Long since beyond the point of being criticised as “just a pretty face”, Pitt makes bold, daring, and unpredictable choices that have seen him gradually become not just one of the industry’s biggest stars but also one of its most interesting. Through the years, he’s starred in Oscar-winning dramas, box office smash hits, cult classics, and many more.
For an actor who has enjoyed such a celebrated career, it’s surprising to think that Pitt regrets much at all, but in a conversation with OK! Magazine, he reveals that there was one movie that evaded his grasp.
“If we were doing a show on the great movies I’ve passed on, we’d need two nights,” Pitt told the publication before revealing that his biggest regret came early in his career when he chose to turn down a leading role in The Matrix. Offered the character of Thomas Anderson, a role that was later filled by Keanu Reeves, Pitt turned down the opportunity in favour of roles in Seven Years in Tibet, Meet Joe Black and Being John Malkovich during the production and release of The Matrix.
Released in 1999, the original Matrix movie, directed by Lilly and Lana Wachowski, was an international sci-fi phenomenon that forever changed the way that the action genre functioned. A mix of a heist film, dystopian horror, film-noir and high-stakes western, The Matrix is in and of itself a filmmaking masterpiece that would make way for three admittedly inferior sequels throughout the 21st century.
Pitt can’t be too annoyed, though. While The Matrix proved to be one of the biggest critical and commercial hits of the year, he collaborated with David Fincher to make Fight Club, a film that made similar revolutionary strides in independent cinema. Starring Edward Norton, Jared Leto, and Helena Bonham Carter, the film would help elevate Pitt in the film industry, making him an actor who defied categorisation.
But it wasn’t the only classic role Pitt has turned down. He also missed out on the chance to play Russel in Almost Famous. Billy Crudup famously took on the part of Russel, but Crowe revealed that they entertained the idea of working with Pitt. The director explained why this collaboration didn’t come to fruition, saying, “His head was still in Fight Club, and the part was a little underwritten. It was the most underwritten in the script, and he couldn’t trust it enough. I’ve talked to him since. I love the guy. I think he’s hilarious, and I thought he would have been funny in the movie. If I had waited a few more months, he might have come around to it, but we had to get going. But Billy Crudup worked out great”.
Take a look at the trailer for Fight Club below, a movie that may have prevented Pitt from starring in the adored action movie The Matrix, but which remains a beloved cult classic in its own right.
