The only role Brad Pitt admitted he was the best one to play: “I knew it the minute I read it”
There are some roles that are destined for one person to play, with Hollywood sometimes nailing it and creating a perfect cast that seems to be hand-picked by the gods. From the hidden talent found in Samantha Morton after a street casting session for Morvern Callar, to Timothee Chalamet in Call Me By Your Name, there are some films that audiences will always remember for that one stellar performance.
But while there are some characters we feel were destined to be played by one person, it takes a lot of self-confidence for someone to believe the same of themselves, something that not many people would admit to at the risk of sounding cocky. While some might say that a lot of people in the business need a slice of humble pie, this wasn’t something that Brad Pitt was eating while auditioning for Edward Zwick’s 1994 film, Legends of the Fall, believing himself to be born for the part.
The production of Legends of the Fall was famously marked by creative differences and personality clashes on set, with the director opting for a different cut of the film that Pitt was vehemently against. The film follows a man living with his three sons on a remote ranch, with the bonds of brotherhood and family being tested over the course of their lives.
The role came during a monumental year for Pitt. Shortly after, the actor booked Interview with a Vampire and spent almost an entire year on set. Subsequently, he landed parts in Seven, True Romance, and Sleepers, which became one of the biggest moments of his career.
But Pitt knew it was the role of a lifetime from the very beginning, with a gut feeling about the project and his reprisal of the lead role, saying, “I’ve always thought there would be someone better for most of the roles I’ve taken. But I knew I was the best one to play [Tristan]. I knew it the minute I read it. I knew the corners, the bends in the road, knew exactly where it went. My difficulty was trying to get others to see it the way I did.”
Pitt plays Tristan Ludlow in the film, one of the sons of Colonel William Ludlow, with the pair having their relationship tested by war and torn apart by love in early 20th-century Montana. The role demands a lot of Pitt, with the actor riding horses and screaming, yelling, and crying his way through each scene, despite the fact that Zwick cut most of his character development and grittier scenes from the final cut of the film, something that Pitt resented and couldn’t wrap his head around.
While the film ended up being very different from the story on the page, with Pitt struggling to comprehend the way that his performance had been altered through Zwick’s editing choices, you sometimes can’t detach from the early buzz of excitement you felt when first hearing about a story. It’s the kind of spark that keeps you going even when times get tough, and even while the film evolved into an entirely different beast, Pitt still remembers it as the one role he felt destined to play.
