Brad Pitt Despised Working With Star Wars Actor Harrison Ford in $140M Movie Because of Their Bizarre Feud
The 1997 action-thriller The Devil’s Own, starred actors Harrison Ford and Brad Pitt in the lead roles, and was directed by Alan J. Pakula. Vincent Patrick, David Aaron Cohen, and Kevin Jarre wrote the film.
Before the recent release of Harrison Ford’s film Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, the actor’s working relationship with Brad Pitt came back into the spotlight, and he did explain the situation on his end. But what precisely occurred between the two incredibly talented actors that the movie is once again the talk of the town? Let’s explore.
Brad Pitt on what went wrong with The Devil’s Own
Brad Pitt, who was excited to be working on the action thriller The Devil’s Own back in 1997 along with Star Wars actor Harrison Ford, shared during an interview with Newsweek back in 1997 that it was challenging to work on the movie. He at the time said,
“We had no script. Well, we had a great script but it got tossed for various reasons. To have to make something up as you go along–Jesus, what pressure! It was ridiculous. It was the most irresponsible bit of filmmaking–if you can even call it that–that I’ve ever seen. I couldn’t believe it. I don’t know why anyone would want to continue making that movie. We had nothing.”
Pitt further added that the movie, which had a great script, underwent so many changes that it lost its essence of it and then it was the victim of the drowning studio head Mark Canton who told them that the studio does not care, and they are making the movie with whatever they have.
Harrison Ford recently commented on the feud, which he explained,
“Brad had this complicated character, and I wanted a complication on my side so that it wasn’t just a good-and-evil battle. And that’s when I came up with the bad-shooting thing. I worked with a writer — but then, all the sudden, we were shooting and we didn’t have a script that Brad and I agreed on. Each of us had different ideas about it. I understand why he wanted to stay with his point of view, and I wanted to stay with my point of view.”
Brad Pitt backtracked on his comments about the script rewrite
After reading Pitt’s comments about the movie, director Alan J. Pakula in his interview with a Tampa Bay publication back in 1997, clarified that the talk around the film changing sounds like it was a shocking occurrence rather than a daily occurrence. He said,
“The basic story never changed. The telling of the story changed, but the goal, the conception of what this picture should be, never changed. It changed in the execution.”
Brad Pitt backtracked on his comments made to Newsweek as he said,
“That was my fault. I didn’t clarify. Everything got muddled. I feel like I stuck to my words and I had to clarify them.”
Pitt went on to explain that the time to start filming was coming close and they did not have the script nailed down, pointing out that it was not because of the lack of a script or loss of faith in anybody, but because his character had the responsibility of speaking for people who had suffered from the insidious war for a lifetime, and there was fear of it becoming movie-ized, trite, trivial. He added that it was just not right and that’s where his fear set in, but concluded that they eventually got it right.
Star Wars actor Harrison Ford chimed in to say, “He forgot for a minute he was talking to somebody who is paid to write this (stuff) down. Excuse me.”
What was Harrison Ford’s take on the situation?
During the interview, the Star Wars actor said that he only knew that he was going to talk about Pitt’s comments made in Newsweek a lot and it’s something that he did not like, but he acknowledged that one couldn’t deny how Pitt felt at the time. He added,
“But as I knew they weren’t going to abandon this project, that we were too far into it, I knew we were going to have to work our way out of it.”
When Pitt was asked why he didn’t drop out of the project, he said he tried to but the studios informed him that he would have to pay $63 million to the studios as a penalty, after which he decided to stay. Ford was asked about the changes Pitt kept mentioning and he said,
“There were things that I didn’t think were good enough yet, moments that were not as fully fleshed out as they might be. I think the film is better for having gone through the process. We all worked together to bring our concerns and ambitions and feelings and thoughts about it together into something that is a collaborative effort, and I’m pleased with the result.”
The Star Wars actor also revealed that he read the script and it interested him as it had a character he had not played before and it was an opportunity for him to work with Brad Pitt, someone he said he has great admiration for.
Source: Tampa Bay
