Director Edward Zwick reveals his disputes with Brad Pitt in 'Legends of Passion': shouting, chair fights and an unsatisfactory result

Tom Cruise was the first candidate to play Tristan Ludlow in

Legends of Passion

.

“Tom Cruise was a director's dream.

As I was to learn in the years to come, that's totally true," says the film's director, Edward Zwick, in an excerpt from his new book,

Hits, Flops, and Other Illusions: My Fortysomething Years in Hollywood

. other illusions: my forty-something years in Hollywood)

, which

Vanity Fair

published this Tuesday, February 6

.

They met for the first time in which they both fit perfectly and they met again a few weeks later because the actor had some doubts about the script.

“He asked me about Tristan's ethics, to which I responded that he essentially had none, and that was the heart of the character.

That's when I realized that he would never do the movie,” recalls Zwick, who met Cruise again 10 years later, when he directed

The Last Samurai

.

Finally, he objected to being Tristan and the director began to imagine him played by Brad Pitt.

“Sitting with him in my office only confirmed my instincts.

It's not enough for a movie star to be pretty (...) And it's not just the way light and shadow play with someone's bone structure.

“It is the unnameable thing behind his eyes that suggests a fascinating inner life, whether he has it or not, that somehow emanates,” he describes.

Unlike Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt “had a genuine passion for the script and a strong attraction to the character.”

But also unlike what happened with the

Mission Impossible

actor , Pitt did not fit in with the director.

“Days before filming, we did a table reading.

Given the script's reliance on narration and visuals, it didn't work very well in the sterile conference room.

I could see Brad's growing discomfort as he moved forward.

Hours later, his agent called the studio to say that Brad wanted to quit,” Zwick says.

The producer, Marshall Herskovitz, took it upon himself to convince him to stay, but, for the director, that was the first omen of “the deepest springs of emotion stirring within Brad.”

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The filmmaker assures that the performer, now 60, “seems calm, but can be volatile when irritated” and that “he got nervous every time he was about to film a scene that required him to show deep emotion.”

The tension grew between actor and director and both got into the occasional fight, as he recalls in the book.

“One afternoon I started giving him instructions out loud in front of the team — a stupid and embarrassing provocation — and Brad responded, also out loud, telling me to back off,” Zwick begins by explaining.

“I don't know who shouted first, who cursed or who threw the first chair.

I maybe?

But when we looked up, the team was gone.

And this wasn't the last time it happened.

Over time, the crew got used to our fights and walked away and left us there,” he now acknowledges when three decades of filming have passed, although he also clarifies that, “after each explosion,” there was also a reconciliation.

From left, Edward Zwick, Marshall Herskovitz and Brad Pitt at the AFI Awards on January 9, 2015 in Beverly Hills, California. Michael Kovac (Getty Images for AFI)

Pitt has previously been accused of volatile and aggressive behavior by his ex-wife, actress Angelina Jolie (Los Angeles, 48 ​​years old).

They began dating in 2005 and married in 2014, but were involved in one of the most high-profile legal battles in Hollywood after their separation in August 2016. It was then that an alleged altercation came to light while the couple was traveling in a private flight with her children, after which Angelina went on to claim that Brad “strangled” one of the children and “hit” another in the face, leaving her and the children feeling like “hostages” and scared under a blanket for hours until they landed.

After a lengthy investigation, the FBI cleared the actor of all child abuse allegations.

His representative called Jolie's account “completely false” and later issued a statement to CNN that said: “Angelina's story continues to evolve each time she tells it.

“Brad has accepted responsibility for what he did, but not for the things he did not do.”

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt at the Berlin International Film Festival, February 13, 2012.Pascal Le Segretain

When it comes to Pitt as a worker, Zwick believes that, “sometimes, no matter how experienced or sensitive you are as a director, things just don't work.”

He describes the actor as “a frank and direct person, funny and capable of great joy.”

“You think that the actor is being oppositional, while he finds you dictatorial.

Some actors have problems with authority, but many directors are threatened when intelligent actors ask challenging questions that reveal their lack of preparation.

“They are both right and they are both wrong,” he confesses in his book.

When filming came to an end and Zwick shared the result with the interpreter of

Fight Club

or

Troy

, he was not satisfied because “he felt that they had minimized the madness of his character.”

Apparently this is because the director decided to leave out a scene in which Tristan is delirious with fever and is screaming as the waves hit him.

“Apologies, Brad,” says the director almost 30 years after the film's release.

He also did not like being named “Sexiest Man of the Year” by

People

magazine in 1995, coinciding with the film's release, something for which the director takes neither credit nor blame.

Brad Pitt, who was once again named the sexiest man alive in 2000, is one of the few men to have received that designation twice, along with George Clooney and Johnny Depp.

Brad Pitt in 'Legends of Passion'.©Dimension Films/Everett Collect

Legends of Passion,

which tells the story of three brothers and their father who live on the plains of Montana at the beginning of the 20th century

,

was nominated for three Oscars in 1995 and won one of them, Best Cinematography.

“Months later, when the studio asked me to do the director's commentary, I asked if Brad would do one.

They said he was considering it.

I called Brad and suggested we do the comment together.

We decided to have dinner first.

Afterwards, we smoked a joint and talked for hours.

We were so high that we barely made it to the recording session.

If you listen closely, you can hear us laughing,” Zwick admits.

Then, each one walked towards his car: “We hugged each other.

It was a nice moment.

“We have never worked together again.”