Brad Pitt has been accused of “volatile” behaviour on the set of one of his films, with a director claiming in a new book that they even got into a “dust-up”.
The film in question is 1994’s Legends Of The Fall, which is based on the 1979 novella of the same title by Jim Harrison and sees Pitt, now 60, play the role of Tristan Ludlow.
The movie is set in the early 1900s, and sees three brothers and their father living in the remote wilderness of Montana as they are affected by betrayal, history, love, nature, and war.
In his new memoir, Hits, Flops, and Other Illusions: My Fortysomething Years in Hollywood, director Ed Zwick has made a series of allegations about the Oscar-winning actor’s conduct during their time working together on the flick.In an extract shared by Vanity Fair, Mr Zwick notes that Pitt "can be volatile when riled", adding that he "would get edgy whenever he was about to shoot a scene that required him to display deep emotion".
He went on to recall: "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."
Pitt took on the role after Tom Cruise dropped out and according to Zwick, “wanted to quit” himself after the first table read, but was convinced 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 penned in his book.
Adding: "Sometimes, no matter how experienced or sensitive you are as a director, things just aren't working. His ideas about Tristan differed from mine."
"Brad had grown up with men who held their emotions in check; I believed the point of the [Legends of the Fall] novel was that a man's life was the sum of his griefs... Yet the more I pushed Brad to reveal himself, the more he resisted. So, I kept pushing and Brad pushed back."
The Standard has contacted a representative for Brad Pitt for comment but to Vanity Fair a spokesman for Pitt denied the claims.
