Ever since it premiered in 1997, there have been reports that Harrison Ford and Brad Pitt butted heads on the set of thriller movie The Devil's Own. Now, Ford has explained exactly what went down.
While on the promotional rounds for Indiana Jones And The Dial of Destiny, Ford, 80, was asked a hefty question about past comments he'd made about the work environment on the set of The Devil's Own.
Now, Ford has admitted why the feud happened.
The Devil's Own centres on an IRA terrorist posing as an immigrant in the US (Pitt) and an Irish-American policeman (Ford).
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At the time, Pitt seemed furious about his experience making the film, calling it 'the most irresponsible bit of filmmaking – if you can even call it that – that I’ve ever seen'.
He explained to Newsweek in 1997: "We had no script. Well, we had a great script but it got tossed for various reasons."
A few months later he seemed to have cooled off somewhat, describing Ford as 'absolutely cool' and explaining to Rolling Stone: "It was the hardest film I’ve ever been on. But as for reports about out-of-control egos and people hiding out in trailers, that just wasn’t the case."
Almost 30 years on, Ford has candidly explained that the two actors just couldn’t agree with each other from the very beginning, stating that they didn’t find a director they both liked.
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Ford said: "First of all, I admire Brad. I think he’s a wonderful actor. He’s a really decent guy. But we couldn’t agree on a director until we came to Alan Pakula, who I had worked with before but Brad had not."
Pakula was already a successful filmmaker at the time of The Devil's Own, with three Academy Award nominations under his belt which included, Best Director for All The President's Men (1976) and Best Adapted Screenplay for Sophie's Choice (1982).
After finally agreeing on the director, the co-stars began to think about creating a new script which featured both of their ideas, which is where it seemed to go wrong for the duo.
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"Brad had this complicated character, and I wanted a complication on my side so that it wasn’t just a good-and-evil battle," Ford explained. "And that’s when I came up with the bad-shooting thing."
In the film, Ford’s character in the movie must make a difficult choice about whether or not to report his partner after an illegal shooting.
He went on to say: "I worked with a writer, but then all the sudden we’re shooting and we didn’t have a script that Brad and I agreed on."
After disclosing that Pitt felt ‘imposed’ by his persistence on the script’s direction, it thankfully ended in success.
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In the end, The Devil's Own grossed $140.8 million against a $90 million budget in the worldwide box office.
Though this would be the last film directed by acclaimed Pakula as he was killed in a car accident in 1998.
After the success of the movie, neither Pitt or Ford worked together again on any TV or film project, though the Indiana Jones actor continues to ‘respect Brad'.
Topics: Film and TV, Harrison Ford, Brad Pitt, News