“Legends of the Fall” director Ed Zwick accused megastar Brad Pitt of “volatile” behavior on set in an excerpt from his memoir “Hits, Flops, and Other Illusions: My Fortysomething Years in Hollywood,” published Tuesday by Vanity Fair.
Apparently Pitt would get “edgy” before having to film a scene that required him to dig deep into himself for emotional impact, Zwick wrote in an excerpt published by Vanity Fair. “I don’t know who yelled first, who swore, or who threw the first chair. Me, maybe? But when we looked up, the crew had disappeared. And this wasn’t the last time it happened,” Zwick reportedly claimed.
Pitt was cast in the role of Tristan Ludlow in the 1994 film, but only because Tom Cruise dropped out of the production, Zwick explained in Vanity Fair. And legend has it that Pitt also tried to leave the movie, forcing producers to convince him to stay.
“It was the first augury of the deeper springs of emotion roiling inside Brad. He seems easygoing at first, but he can be volatile when riled, as I was to be reminded more than once as shooting began and we took each other’s measure,” Zwick continued in Vanity Fair. “Sometimes, no matter how experienced or sensitive you are as a director, things just aren’t working.”
“His ideas about Tristan differed from mine,” the director reportedly added
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Zwick put Pitt’s behavior down to the actor being raised around “men who held their emotions in check” in the excerpt. And the more he reportedly pushed Pitt to reveal himself, the more Pitt pushed back.
Things reached a head when Zwick gave Pitt a note in front of a crew member, according to the Vanity Fair excerpt. “Brad came back at me, also out loud, telling me to back off,” Zwick reportedly claimed. “The considered move would have been to tell the crew to take five and for the two of us to talk it out. But I was feeling bloody-minded, and not about to relent.”
Zwick was angry that Pitt didn’t trust him to “influence his performance,” according to the excerpt. And apparently this wasn’t a one-time thing. The “crew grew accustomed to our dustups and would walk away and let us have it out,” and in one instance Pitt reportedly threw a chair. But through all this, Zwick only seemed to have lovely things to say about Pitt as a person in the excerpt, describing him as “forthright, straightforward person, fun to be with and capable of great joy.” (RELATED: Politico Suggests Angelina Jolie Might Be ‘Jane Doe’ In FBI Lawsuit Involving Domestic Violence)
Reps for Brad Pitt did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller’s request for comment on Zwick’s claims.