David Fincher 1999’s movie Fight Club initially failed to meet the studio’s expectations at the box office and received mixed reviews from the viewers, but many years later, the film found its audience and became a cult classic. It will always remain one of the most controversial and talked-about films of all time but there was one line in the movie that took things too far.
In the movie, when the narrator and Marla Singer finish having s*x, she tells him that she hasn’t been “f**ked like that since grade school.” This line caused outrage but many people don’t know that this was director David Fincher’s revenge. The movie was based on the 1996 novel of the same name by Chuck Palahniuk and in the novel, the line was different but producer Laura Ziskin thought the line was too offensive and asked Fincher to change it.
Fincher agreed to change it only on one condition: he would make the change himself and it cannot be changed again. The resulting line was far more controversial.
This line from the Fight Club novel was not included in the movie
Fight Club (1999) was based on the 1996 novel of the same name by Chuck Palahniuk. In the novel, when the narrator and Marla Singer finish having s*x, she tells him, “I want to have your abortion.” Producer Laura Ziskin was strictly against the idea of adding this line in the movie. Author Chuck Palahniuk also explained on the Joe Rogan Experience that actor Brad Pitt didn’t want his mother to hear this line,
“I loved writing that line in Fight Club. The most romantic thing that Marla can say is, ‘I want to have your baby.’ She says, ‘I hope I got pregnant because I really want to have your abortion,’ and that’s the line that the movie studio went around and around. Even Brad Pitt said, ‘You know, my mom’s gonna see this movie. I don’t want her to see this line.'”
Despite Ziskin opposing the idea, Fincher went ahead and shot the scene with that line. At an early screening, the audience loved the line but still, Ziskin wanted that line removed.
David Fincher changed the line to something worse
Eventually, Fincher agreed to change the line but only on the condition that it cannot be changed again. Ziskin believed that there wasn’t anything worse than Palahniuk’s original dialogue so she agreed. The line was changed to “I haven’t been f**ked like that since grade school.”
The line was indeed worse than the original and Ziskin begged him to return to the original line but as per the deal, the line couldn’t be changed again. When the changed line was shown at an early screening, the audience let out a bigger laugh and it eventually made it to the final cut. Fight Club is available for streaming online on Peacock TV, ROW8, Vudu, Apple TV, or Prime Video.
