Brad Pitt gained international fame thanks to the sci-fi film 12 monkeys. For this film, the actor received his first Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Pitt played the role of Jeffrey Goines, a mentally ill patient hospitalized alongside James Cole (Bruce Willis), directed by Terry Gilliam.
Although Pitt is now a well-known actor, proving his dramatic abilities in films such as Babylon, Seven, And The tree of Lifeat the time of filming, he had a reputation as a laid-back actor. 12 monkeys. Consequently, director Terry Gilliam had a tactic to get him to play the assertive and talkative character of Jeffrey Goines.
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Casting Brad Pitt for the role 12 monkeys
Science fiction film 12 monkeys It was reportedly inspired by a French short film by Chris Harker called La Jetée. The film was reportedly offered to Terry Gilliam after several directors turned down the project. Gilliam just delayed his film adaptation A Tale of Two Cities and then I decided to take on this project.
Gilliam noted that many major stars were considered for the role, as he was an in-demand director at the time. He stated this in an interview with Inverse.
“The pressure was to attract a movie star. This was at a time when I was still a popular director and people wanted to come up to me and touch me. So they came up with all these names. And I just kept saying no. Tom Cruise, Nic Cage – they all attacked me.”
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The director eventually settled on Bruce Willis, despite not liking his image as an action star. He also convinced the actor to take a pay cut due to Universal Pictures cutting the film’s budget. Gilliam mentioned that he was initially afraid that Brad Pitt would not be able to play the talkative role of Jeffrey Goines. He said,
“Brad (Pitt) came to London and we had dinner because he was really keen to get on board to play the role I had already given Bruce. I was actually scared shitless that Brad wouldn’t be able to play the character because we’d never seen him as a talker before.”
The legendary director reportedly used a variety of techniques to get the actors to get into character and give it their all.
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Terry Gilliam stole Brad Pitt’s cigarettes to make him perform better
Director Terry Gilliam was known as a taskmaster on set, and he was just experiencing the success of films such as Brazil And Fisher King. He convinced Bruce Willis to come to the set without his entourage and also reportedly connected Brad Pitt with a speech coach to help him get the character of Jeffrey Goines right.
Gilliam credited Brad Pitt for his hard work on the film. However, the director remained skeptical of Pitt’s ability to handle Goines’ chaotic energy. In an interview with Inverse, he said:
“I teamed (Brad) up with Stephen Bridgewater, who had worked with Jeff Bridges on The Fisher King… But he worked his ass off; he really did…Bridgewater worked with Brad every day. He was like a coach. And I think at some point he decided that he didn’t need Stephen. It was a terrible day because Brad had it all wrong, and he knew it, and that made it even worse.”
So Gilliam reportedly decided to add his own method of chaos to the acting process. He reportedly took back his cigarettes, which sent Pitt into severe withdrawal symptoms, which ultimately led to the actor’s phenomenal performance. This method seemed to work when Brad Pitt received his first-ever Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor for the film.
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