The 2004 movie Brad Pitt wants to delete from history: “I made my own mistakes”
Brad Pitt has spent decades in the movie business, working his way around studio lots and climbing his way into some of the best movies ever made. It is impressive that, throughout that time, ducking and viding through the business, he has rarely let his standards drop too far.
He has still managed to stay at the very top of his game by repeatedly delivering critically acclaimed performances, and recent projects such as Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and Ad Astra proves that. However, the global icon recently announced that he is currently considering retirement while planning ahead for the future as he sees a career behind the camera beckoning.
Director’s chair or not, Pitt deserves a good sit-down. The actor has been nailing his roles for decades and has seemingly only fluffed his shot at cinema greatness a few times. His position as one of the most hard-working actors in the business is irrefutable, and while there have certainly been some paycheque-movies along the way, he has managed to balance this out with a selection of critically-acclaimed hits. So, perhaps there is good reason to consider retirement.
Part of what has sustained Pitt’s longevity is his awareness of how quickly momentum can shift in Hollywood. Success does not guarantee control, and even the most established actors can find themselves navigating projects that do not align with their instincts. Over time, Pitt seemed to develop a sharper sense of what he wanted from his work, becoming more selective about the roles he took and the filmmakers he chose to collaborate with.
That shift was not immediate, though. Like many actors rising through the ranks, there were moments where opportunity and obligation blurred together, leading to decisions that were not entirely his own. Those experiences, while occasionally frustrating, played a crucial role in shaping the standards he would later set for himself, helping him define the kind of projects that truly resonated with his evolving artistic identity.
When an individual attains the kind of fame and popularity that Brad Pitt is associated with, it is safe to say that they have the liberty to choose their own projects and exercise creative freedom. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case with Pitt, who was forced into acting in a specific production that he considers to be the worst project of his career—the one movie he’d rather have deleted from his extensive filmography.
That film was none other than Troy, Wolfgang Petersen’s critically panned Homer adaptation where Pitt starred as Achilles – the legendary invincible warrior. At the time, Pitt couldn’t voice his opinions because of legal obligations but he later revealed that he regretted making the film because the studio forced him after he dropped out of another project.
In an interview, Pitt revealed why he disliked working on the film so much: “It wasn’t painful, but I realised that the way that movie was being told was not how I wanted it to be. I made my own mistakes in it. What am I trying to say about Troy? I could not get out of the middle of the frame. It was driving me crazy.”
Talking about some of his other acclaimed projects, the actor added: “I’d become spoiled working with David Fincher. It’s no slight on Wolfgang Petersen. Das Boot is one of the all-time great films. But somewhere in it, Troy became a commercial kind of thing. Every shot was like, ‘Here’s the hero!’ There was no mystery.”
After working on Troy, Pitt promised himself that he was not going to compromise on his artistic vision and pledged to work on films that he was personally interested in. It definitely showed since he went on to work on fantastic projects such as The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, among others.
In truth, Pitt’s disdain towards the movie is more accurately a reflection of his journey. Having started more simply as a heartthrob character in his pictures, Pitt worked hard to shake the tag and become a serious and credible actor. Having done so, the trip back to being a long-haired hero throwing his pear and fighting in the mud felt like a step backwards he was unwilling to ever take again.
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