“He is in a new chapter of his life”: which actors are on Brad Pitt’s ‘shit list’?
In 2022, Aaron Taylor-Johnson was interviewed about his role in David Leitch’s Bullet Train. During this chat, he revealed a fascinating tidbit of information that – bizarrely – wasn’t followed up on in any significant way. You see, Taylor-Johnson claimed that Brad Pitt, his leading man in the action flick, has compiled two lists over the course of his career: a “good” list of actors he’d love to work with again and a “shit” list of actors who he’d cheerfully never again lay eyes upon.
Frustratingly, Taylor-Johnson didn’t include any names on either list – which is where I come in. Pay attention, dear reader, as I don my Deerstalker hat and delve into the internet mines to figure out the answer to a great mystery: who exactly is on Pitt’s ‘shit list’?
Let’s start with what Taylor-Johnson said about Pitt’s outlook on acting as he entered his seventh decade. “He is in a new chapter of his life, I think,” the Nosferatu star noted. “He just wants to bring light and joy into the world and be around people who are there to have a good time. You work with many actors, and after a while, you start making notes: ‘I am definitely not working with this person ever again.'”
So, with that quote in mind, let’s theorise about which actors weren’t on Pitt’s “have a good time” wavelength. The first one that leaps to mind is an actor who has developed a reputation over the years for not being the most fun guy to be around: Shia LaBeouf.
When they worked together on 2014’s Fury, it was claimed that Pitt and LaBeouf actually got into a fistfight behind the scenes. The young star’s antics had been aggravating people on sets for years at that point, so people assumed he’d rubbed Pitt the wrong way and received a knuckle sandwich for it. However, this was slightly tempered by LaBeouf’s claim that director David Ayer actually encouraged the cast to punch each other as a bonding experience. It sounds wildly problematic, obviously, but it could very well be true, so let’s say LaBeouf is a maybe for Pitt’s shit list.
A better candidate for inclusion might be Harrison Ford, who Pitt reportedly butted heads with on 1997’s The Devil’s Own. This one sounds like a classic case of creative differences leading to tension on set, with Pitt developing a script before Ford came on board that was then torn up and rewritten by the Indiana Jones icon. They reportedly disagreed on the director for the project, too, with Ford pushing for Alan Pakula, who he’d worked with before but with whom Pitt had no familiarity.
Ford admitted Pitt felt he was forcing his ideas for the film on him, even though he also understood Pitt’s stance on the matter. “It was complicated,” Ford told The Independent in 2013. He then described the shoot as “tough,” which was a lot more diplomatic than when Pitt called it, “The most irresponsible bit of filmmaking, if you can even call it that, that I’ve ever seen.” Yikes. I’m going to say Ford is most definitely on the list.
For my money, though, number one with a bullet on Pitt’s shit list is everyone’s favourite pearly white flashin’, Scientology believin’, stunt practicin’ madman Tom Cruise. The two megastars reportedly feuded while shooting Interview with the Vampire, with Pitt grousing, “He bugged me. There came a point during filming when I started really resenting him.”
It seems the laidback Pitt struggled with Cruise’s relentless enthusiasm, which sometimes comes across as forced and fake. “He’s North Pole, I’m South,” Pitt explained. “He’s always coming at you with a handshake, whereas I may bump into you.” He also indicated there was an unnecessarily competitive streak to everything Cruise did, which he felt “got in the way of any real conversation.”
Tom Cruise: you just made the Brad Pitt shit list.
