‘Apollo 13’: The role Brad Pitt’s mother was furious he turned down
There are very few Hollywood A-listers who can assert they’ve been both a symbol of artistic substance and a champion of cinematic innovation as Brad Pitt. This celebrated actor and producer has seamlessly blended a captivating on-screen charisma with his multifaceted acting skills, breathing life into contemporary masterpieces such as Fight Club, Ocean’s Eleven, and Inglourious Basterds.
Reflecting on his career, Pitt has few decisions to rue. Nonetheless, if pressed to unearth any regrets, there are a few projects he might regret having taken and some he might regret not taking. Pitt famously attempted to withdraw from his role in Neil Jordan’s Interview with the Vampire after reading the script, but the films he missed out on are a bit more challenging to discern.
Simultaneously, there’s one in particular that his own mother was furious that he rejected: Apollo 13. Directed by Ron Howard, Apollo 13 was a remarkable cinematic interpretation of a true event, focusing on the mission to rescue astronauts in space after their spacecraft encountered a malfunction. In the film, Tom Hanks portrayed Commander Jim Lovell, Bill Paxton took on the role of Lunar Module Pilot Fred Haise, Gary Sinise played grounded pilot Ken Mattingly, and Kevin Bacon portrayed Command Module Pilot Jack Swigert.
When assembling the perfect cast, the filmmakers also allegedly considered Pitt for Bacon’s role — but Pitt declined the role in favour of another iconic thriller, Seven, which was released after Apollo 13. As a result, Pitt’s mother was quite upset when she learned that her son had turned down a role in a movie she loved watching.
“I was talking to my mom the other night,” Pitt told The Morning Call, “And she said, ‘I just saw the best movie called Apollo 13. I said, ‘Mom, I turned that down for Seven and wait until you see the movie’.” Evidently, his mother wasn’t very pleased about his decision, but the actor was confident about Seven regardless. Her concerns may have been related to the director, David Fincher, who had previously directed Alien 3, which wasn’t very well-received.
Pitt has turned down huge roles on other occasions, two of which involve Matt Damon. Prior to Damon securing the starring role in the 2002 adaptation of Robert Ludlum’s action novel The Bourne Identity, Pitt was initially offered the part. While he was interested in taking on the role, he had already committed to star in Tony Scott’s Spy Game and was unable to accept the offer due to contractual obligations.
In 2003, Pitt and Warner Bros producer Brad Grey acquired the rights to create an American version of the Hong Kong police thriller Internal Affairs. Their original plan was for Pitt to play the role of the Boston police officer Colin Sullivan, with Leonardo DiCaprio taking on the character of William Costigan.
This project eventually evolved into The Departed under the skilled direction of Martin Scorsese. Pitt explained his decision to give up the role in a 2007 interview with Interview Magazine, stating: “I thought it would be better if [the leads] were younger guys that were just starting their lives, guys coming out of the academy, guys who were hungry. I thought I was too old for it.”
