Hollywood runs on skill and talent. As such, it becomes difficult to imagine every film and television show always finding the right fit for their characters and hitting it off with the casting director’s first choice for a role. The revolutionary 90s were dominated by actors like Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise, Bruce Willis, and Will Smith – and that essentially made them the most in-demand and first-choice actors for almost every role that originated during the time.
This would then also mean their commitments to more than one project, at the time, would allow for turning down other potentially great roles. Among the few major hits and misses lies Brad Pitt’s leading part in Cameron Crowe’s semi-autobiographical film, Almost Famous.
Also read: The Best Brad Pitt Films Where He Wasn’t the Main Star
Brad Pitt Turned Down Cameron Crowe’s Almost Famous
Despite the slew of Oscar-baiting critical and commercial blockbusters lining his career, Brad Pitt suffered from a moment of dissociation when it came to the role of guitarist Russell Hammond in Almost Famous, directed by Cameron Crowe. As Crowe recalled on the Cadence13 podcast:
“Brad Pitt was on my mind because I had a really good meeting with him around the time of Say Anything, and he was just starting out, and he just really had something. So I called him with this to play Russell Hammond, and we spent about four months working on it. He read with Natalie Portman.”
And Natalie Portman was not the only major Oscar-winning name associated with the project alongside Brad Pitt. Meryl Streep was also the director’s first choice for the role of Elaine Miller. All three cast members were dropped for other names, but Pitt’s rejection hit the hardest. Crowe claimed:
“I wept. I knew that Brad had never fully fallen in love with the character. He had fallen in love with the idea of the character. But maybe there just wasn’t enough on the page. He told me [money] wasn’t the case. I think it was probably half and half. I think he was also uncomfortable with the age difference between Russell and Penny Lane.”
Pitt’s part was later played magnificently by Billy Crudup, Natalie Portman’s Penny Lane went to Kate Hudson, and the film proved a breakout hit for her, ultimately going on to win her a Golden Globe and her first Oscar nomination. The role that was envisioned for Streep went to the long-time Coen Brothers collaborator and Fargo actress, Frances McDormand.
Brad Pitt’s Rejection Pile Makes Hollywood Balk
There are a rare handful of actors that are so coveted that it would enrage the audience to know of all the roles that were turned down in favor of the ones that made it to the screens. Brad Pitt is among one of those actors. And his rejection pile is insulting to the senses of Hollywood. Comprising of leading parts in films like The Matrix, Jason Bourne, The Departed, and Apollo 13, the actor finds a way to joke about his near-hits, holding an air of nostalgic nonchalance and claiming, “I took the red pill.”
Lying on top of his rejection pile is the list of roles he tried out for and didn’t get. Ranging from Jack Dawson in Titanic to Patrick Bateman in American Psycho, it was indeed in the best interest of everyone involved that even the two-time Oscar-winner failed to land certain parts in his peak era. No actor can be imagined walking in the shoes of the aforementioned roles other than Leonardo DiCaprio and Christian Bale respectively, and they not only did justice to their roles but made it entirely their own.
Almost Famous is available for streaming on Paramount Plus.
Source: Radio.Com
