Brad Pitt ‘Wanted to Quit’ Legends of the Fall, ‘Wasn’t Pleased’ with the Final Film, Says Director

Ed Zwick is ready to pull back the curtain on his work with Brad Pitt.

In an excerpt from his forthcoming memoir, Hits, Failures and Other Illusions: My Forty Years in Hollywood, he announced vanity fair Tuesday, Blood diamond director, 71, reflected on directing Pitt, 60, d Legends of autumn.

Zwick wrote that the 1994 film was “in limbo” after Tom Cruise, who was in talks to play Tristan Ludlow, dropped out due to issues with the “ethics” of the character.

“I never hoped to get it Legends did, however, and was always looking for the right actor to play Tristan,” Zwick wrote. After meeting Pitt, Zwick noted that he “had a real passion for the script and a strong attraction to the character.”

Brad Pitt in ‘Legends of the Fall’.

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“Growing up in rural Missouri, he knew men like Tristan, he said. When he left the meeting, I felt I had found the right actor. I was more determined than ever to cross the line,” Zwick wrote.

According to Zwick, Pitt’s feelings about the film changed after reading the chart. He recalled how Pitt’s agent called the studio saying he wanted to quit, and producer Marshall Herskovitz “talked him off the edge.”

Zwick wrote that “it was the first sign of the deeper wells of emotion swirling in Brad,” expressing that he could be “volatile when fired up.”

“Sometimes, no matter how experienced or sensitive you are as a director, things just don’t work,” Zwick wrote. “You think an actor is oppositional and he sees you as dictatorial. Some actors have problems with authority, but also many directors are threatened when intelligent actors ask challenging questions that reveal their unpreparedness. Both are right and both are wrong right. ”

(L-R) Julia Ormond, Brad Pitt in ‘Legends of the Fall’.

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After filming began, production problems arose that included “the wettest summer in Alberta history,” “an infernal mud landscape” and spending “more than a million dollars on costumes,” Zwick said, “Brad’s anxiety about the film never stopped. had gone.”

He described incidents in which the two disagreed about character, including one in which he “started giving [Pitt] direction loudly in front of the crew,” causing Pitt to also be “loud” and tell him to “back off.”

Poster of the movie ‘Legends of the Fall’.

TriStar Pictures/ Everett

“In his defense, I was pushing him to do something that he felt was either wrong for the character, or more ’emo’ than he wanted to appear on screen. I don’t know who yelled first, who cursed, or who threw the chair first. Me, maybe? But when we looked up, the team was gone,” Zwick wrote.

Zwick wrote that the crew “got used to our dust” but that he and Pitt would “make up” after each “puff”.

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“It was never personal. Brad is an honest, direct person, fun to be around and capable of great joy. He was never anything less than completely committed to giving his best,” Zwick wrote.

Come to think of it, there is one thing Zwick would have changed in the final version.

“When I showed Brad the last film, he wasn’t happy. He thought I was playing down the madness of his character,” he recalled. “I actually only cut one shot from the scene where Tristan is raging with fever, screaming as the waves wash over him on the schooner. But it was a shot he really loved and it would have been enough to leave it and I should have. I’m sorry, Brad. ”

PEOPLE has reached out to Pitt’s representatives for comment.

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