The star Brad Pitt called out for “actor bullshit”
Method acting isn’t for everyone, a sentiment that applies to both performers and the people regularly left either impressed or confounded by the lengths somebody will go to in order to get into character and stay there for as long as possible. It isn’t a technique Brad Pitt uses, nor is it one he’s entirely sold on.
Of course, leaving the work behind the second he steps off set hasn’t done a thing to prevent Pitt from enjoying serious longevity as one of the biggest stars in Hollywood, one that’s scooped two Academy Awards from seven nominations in total, including a ‘Best Supporting Actor’ trophy for his turn in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
For him, it’s easy to leave whatever role he’s playing at the door and resume the normality of his existence whenever the cameras aren’t rolling. The extent of Pitt’s method madness extends to his recurring habit of eating on-screen, which’s been part of his arsenal for decades, but fully immersing himself in a part hasn’t ever been something he’s considered a viable way of preparing.
Arguably the most famous method practitioner of recent times is Daniel Day-Lewis, making it fitting that he was singled out for scorn by Pitt prior to the release of Interview with the Vampire. The former was heavily courted to join the cast, but he showed no interest in the repeated overtures made to gauge his interest in the Anne Rice adaptation.
Telling Rolling Stone that “movies have always been cowboys and Indians for me”, Pitt voiced his frustrations with one of his peers, deeming Interview with the Vampire as being beneath them. “When they had offered the part to Daniel Day-Lewis, I heard his response was that he didn’t like what it would do to him,” he said, “Look, he’s one of my favourites, but I thought, ‘Jesus Christ, more actor bullshit'”.
Despite his initial misgivings, though, Pitt would then concede that he eventually agreed. “Now I’d say I understand a little bit of what he was talking about,” he continued, “When I read the book, I thought it was great. I’m really proud of it. It’s just that for me, making the movie wasn’t so great”.
Pitt’s experience on Interview with the Vampire was far from being one of his favourites, and he even offered to buy himself out of his contract at one point to escape his misery, while reports regularly suggested there was tension behind the scenes between the star and Tom Cruise.
In the end, Day-Lewis was proven entirely correct for disregarding the gothic fantasy based on his assumptions of what it would do to him, if only for the fact Pitt actively referred to his own time shooting the project as “miserable”.
