The one movie Brad Pitt didn’t think he belonged in: “I was a disservice to it”
Many actors would kill for the kind of career Brad Pitt has built, with leading and supporting roles in the works of David Fincher, Quentin Tarantino, and Damien Chazelle, as well as appearances in iconic television shows like Friends and cult classics like Burn After Reading and Ocean’s Eleven.
Whether playing a jaded Nazi hunter in Inglourious Basterds or an actor embracing obsolescence in Babylon, Pitt has had his pick of the best roles over the years. His subtle star quality and natural charisma make him the perfect choice to bring colour to any story. With a career spanning decades, his already impressive résumé only continues to grow.
However, while he is not considered one of the ultimate movie stars and leading men, he was not always convinced of his own talent and place within certain projects, questioning whether he was the right man for the job in one film during his early career.
Pitt’s rise to fame escalated rapidly during the ’90s. He started with steady roles in independent films like Less Than Zero and The Dark Side of the Sun before his breakout performance in Thelma & Louise. His first film appearance came in 1987, but it was Ridley Scott’s 1991 road movie that put him on the map. After that, Pitt was abruptly thrust into the spotlight, becoming one of Hollywood’s most in-demand actors. He starred in a few lesser-known films before a career-defining streak with True Romance, Interview with the Vampire, Se7en, and Legends of the Fall.
However, while he is still recognised for his roles in these films even today, there was one film within this period that the actor is less convinced by, describing his experience of starring in Sleepers.
Directed in 1996 by Barry Levinson, who is most well-known for Rain Main and Good Morning Vietnam, the film follows two gangsters who seek revenge on a jail worker who sexually abused them during their time in prison. Pitt stars alongside Minnie Driver, Dustin Hoffman, Kevin Bacon and Robert De Niro, with a stacked cast that features some of the best and brightest in Hollywood.
This would perhaps be intimidating for anyone in the business, regardless of how long they had been working, but Pitt experienced major imposter syndrome after working on the project. When describing Sleepers, Pitt said, “I think I was a disservice to it. This is the period where I really started getting confused and discombobulated. Because [my career] started blowing up, for one. Suddenly, I had a lot of people in my ear telling me what I should do and what I shouldn’t do”.
Many actors struggle to assert their creative identities at the beginning of their career, becoming oversaturated with voices on who they should work with and how they should define themselves as a performer. It would be imaginably overwhelming to discover your voice while being inundated with opinions on what it should be, which Pitt believes hindered his performance in the film. While he was distracted by this noise, it didn’t impact his career, forging a unique voice within the industry.
