Brad Pitt has been accused by director Ed Zwick of ‘volatile’ behavior on the set of his 1994 western film Legends Of The Fall.
In an excerpt from his new memoir, “Hits, Flops, and Other Illusions: My Fortysomething Years in Hollywood,” Zwick, 71, discussed his rocky relationship with the Hollywood heartthrob, 60.
The filmmaker wrote that Pitt “can be volatile when angry,” as evidenced by the clip published by Vanity fairand “became tense when he was about to shoot a scene where he had to show deep emotions.”
He recalled one of their on-set “dustups”: “I don’t know who shouted first, who cursed or who threw the first chair. Me maybe? But when we looked up, the crew was gone. And this wasn’t the last time this happened.”
A Pitt spokesperson declined to comment when contacted by DailyMail.com on Tuesday.
Brad Pitt, 60, has been accused of ‘volatile’ behavior on the set of his 1994 western film Legends Of The Fall by director Ed Zwick, 71; Pitt seen in a still from Legends Of The Fall
The filmmaker wrote that Pitt “can be volatile when angry” and would become “tense” when filming emotional scenes in an excerpt from his new memoir; Pictured in 2023
Pitt was cast in the role of Tristan Ludlow after Tom Cruise dropped out, although his agent reportedly called Zwick after the first table read “to say Brad wanted to drop out.”
Producer Marshall Herskovitz eventually convinced him to stay.
“It was the first sign of the deeper wells of emotion bubbling within Brad. At first he seems easy-going, but he can be volatile when he gets angry, as I was reminded more than once when the shooting started and we took each other’s measure,” Zwick wrote.
‘Sometimes, no matter how experienced or sensitive you are as a director, it just doesn’t work.’
“His ideas about Tristan differed from mine,” Zwick continued.
“Brad had grown up with men who kept their emotions in check; I believed the point of the novel (Legends of the Fall) was that a man’s life was the sum of his sorrows… But the more I pushed Brad to reveal himself, the more he resisted. So I kept pushing and Brad pushed back.”
For example, he remembers giving Pitt instructions in front of the crew, which he admits was “a stupid, embarrassing provocation.”
“Brad came back, also loudly, and told me to back off.”
He recalled one of their on-set written ‘dustups’ in which they reportedly ‘yelled, swore and threw chairs’ and that it was ‘not the last time this happened’; (L-R) Zwick, Marshall Herskovitz and Pitt in 2015
Pitt was cast in the role of Tristan Ludlow after Tom Cruise dropped out, although his agent reportedly called Zwick after the first table read “to say Brad wanted to drop out.”
“The deliberate move would have been to tell the crew to take five and let’s talk about it together. But I felt bloody and wasn’t going to give in.”
‘I was angry with Brad because he didn’t trust me to influence his performance. Also because of the reluctance he had shown after reading the first table. Who knows, I may have expressed my own inability to be vulnerable.”
“But Brad wasn’t about to give in without a fight. In his defense, I urged him to do something that he felt was either wrong for the character or more ’emo’ than he wanted to appear on screen.”
He then described a moment when they allegedly shouted, cursed and threw chairs.
‘Eventually the crew got used to our clean-up actions and walked away to let us out. “We hate it when parents fight,” said one.”
Zwick said that although they would “blow up” at each other, they would later “make up and mean it.”
The director went on to say that Pitt is “a candid, straightforward person, fun to be around and capable of great joy. He was never less than completely committed to doing his best.
