Whoa, Neo way!
Brad Pitt discusses how “The Matrix” got away.
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” star Brad Pitt was feted at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival on Wednesday for his superstar career filled with wildly successful performances.
But his career retrospective at the event, where he received the Leonard Maltin Modern Master Award, wouldn’t have been complete without discussing the culturally dominant film that he didn’t appear in: “The Matrix.”
During the stage interview, Maltin, who moderated the event, pushed a highly reluctant Pitt to name one role he had passed on. Finally, Pitt agreed to give just one.
“I did pass on ‘The Matrix,’ “said Pitt, as the sold-out film festival theater audience roared. Without missing a beat, he added with a smile, “I took the red pill. That’s the only one I’m naming.”
Last year, during the 20th anniversary of “The Matrix,” producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura said Pitt was one of a handful of A-list stars considered for the Neo role – including Sandra Bullock, Will Smith and Leonardo DiCaprio – before it was given to Keanu Reeves.
Pitt made it clear he had the offer and was at the top of the list.
“I wasn’t offered two or three. Only the first one,” he said. “Just to clarify that.”
In an awards season where Pitt is running the tables for his “Once Upon a Time” role as noble stuntman Cliff Booth, the actor repeated that he was reluctant to discuss the topic of his overlooked projects.
“I come from a place, maybe it’s my upbringing, if I didn’t get it, then it wasn’t mine,” he said. “I really believe (the role) was never mine. It’s not mine. It was someone else’s and they go and make it. I really do believe in that.”
Pitt added, laughing, “If we were doing a show on the great movies I’ve passed on, we would need two nights.”
Most of the evening was spent discussing Pitt’s amazing rise from University of Missouri journalism student (inspired by “All the President’s Men”) who bolted to Los Angeles before graduation, where he has ruled atop the Hollywood acting pyramid for decades.
Pitt talked about starting as a struggling actor trying to earn his Screen Actors Guild card, which required performing a line onscreen. He took a chance while working as a waiter extra in a movie starring Charlie Sheen, adding a line definitely not in the script while serving diners further down the table from Sheen.
“I thought, I’m going to try it,” Pitt recalled. “And so I went, ‘Would you like anything else?’ And I heard the first assistant director go, ‘Cut! Cut! Cut!’ And he said, ‘If you pull that again, you’re out of here.’ So I didn’t get (the SAG card) then.”
Talk about full turnabout. On Sunday, Pitt earned the best supporting actor SAG Award for “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.”
Pitt said his casting as a the paroleviolating charmer in 1991’s “Thelma & Louise” was a major turning point in his young career. He gave credit to his screen partner Geena Davis and director Ridley Scott for gambling on an untested actor.
“That was the game, the big league, by giving me the part,” he said. “I had nothing to show for myself, and they took a chance on me. They had gone through a few actors. They were already shooting. I think they were desperate. A week later, I was on set.”
When finally accepting the Maltin award, Pitt was entirely grateful, in his typically self-deprecating way, from the podium.
“It’s nights like this that tell me, I’m old,” the producer/actor said. “I’ve been around a while. I can’t stand night shoots anymore, I’ll gladly hand a stunt over to a stuntman. I no longer remember the first rule of ‘Fight Club.’ But it’s also a night where I feel really, really blessed.”