The role Brad Pitt couldn’t wait to be over: “I didn’t like anything about it”
You might think you’ve recently seen Brad Pitt smashing Tom Cruise in the face over and over on top of a building in what would conceivably appear to be a new blockbuster movie, but of course, you actually didn’t. It was an AI-generated video, and we are basically all doomed and should probably start bowing down to our new robot overlords and making best friends with toasters and stuff before they wipe us out.
One thing that the worryingly realistic 15-second clip did highlight, though, other than the fact we will all end up cowering while uber-powerful C-3POs use us as footstools, is how cool it would be if we were to get Pitt and Cruise co-headlining an action film, a movie that isn’t 1994’s Interview with the Vampire, which was more than thirty years ago and remains the only time the pair have shared a film set.
Of course, out of the two of them, it’s Cruise who tends to deliver the all-action, big-budget thrills; even at 60, he shows no signs of slowing down, usually hurtling across rooftops with his arms tucked in. But Pitt can also do mammoth gate receipts at the box office as last year’s thrill-packed racing movie F1 showed to great effect, bringing in $600million and scooping four Oscar nominations in the process.
Pitt doesn’t make a lot of films; in fact, F1 was his first proper theatrical release since 2022’s Babylon with Margot Robbie, but when he does, they tend to be more artistically heavy-hitting than Cruise’s popcorn-selling jaw-droppers, and that’s been mirrored throughout his four-decade career that really took off with the cliff-jumping friendship drama Thelma and Louise in 1991.
But before that, after moving to Los Angeles to become a professional actor, Pitt had toiled away without too much luck and only a few hundred dollars in his pocket, hiring an acting coach and taking on small uncredited roles in films like Kevin Costner’s No Way Out in 1987. He also took roles in TV shows, not many of which are remembered today, shows like Glory Days, a drama about a group of friends leaving high school that only lasted for six episodes before being canned.
Pitt had no fond memories of his brief stint doing TV and said back in 1994: “I didn’t like anything about it. You sign onto a project and you have no control. A different director comes in every week and tells you who your character is.”
Adding: “The show was canceled after a brief run and I was relieved because they were grooming me to be this teen idol. I didn’t want to be like the guys in Beverly Hills 90210. Heart-throbs are a dime a dozen.”
Perhaps it was that mentality, even at a relatively young age, that informed the career decisions Pitt would go on to make, preferring to take on movies that had the possibility of becoming massive hits like 1995’s Seven rather than guaranteed seat-fillers. His later movies are perfect examples, while hardly low-budget indie efforts, they are nonetheless much more interesting than some A-listers take on, like the overlooked space epic Ad Astra, the financial crash movie The Big Short (one of the most infuriating films ever made) and 2011’s engrossing sports drama Moneyball.
Pitt will next team up with Quentin Tarantino again for the Fincher-directed spin-off The Adventures of Cliff Booth before moving on to Oceans 14 alongside George Clooney and Matt Damon.
