Brad Pitt has had decades of making iconic movies, but it was 12 Monkeys which helped him earn his first Oscar nomination. His unhinged performance was thanks to this unique on-set method.

The 1995 science-fiction movie was directed by Terry Gilliam and was set in a dystopian future where a prisoner must go back in time to learn what caused a deadly outbreak. Although Bruce Willis is the lead, Brad Pitt has one of the most memorable performances in the film.

It was revealed that Pitt’s Oscar-nominated performance came from being deprived of cigarettes. Although Pitt is now known as one of the most versatile stars in Hollywood, at the time he wasn’t. “I cast Bruce [Willis] and Brad completely opposite of what they normally did,” the director recently explained in a People interview. “Bruce was always a motormouth…and Brad was always very laconic.”

The Secret Behind Brad Pitt’s Performance In 12 Monkeys

Via Universal Pictures

In 12 Monkeys, Brad Pitt played Jeffrey Goines, a psychotic mental patient and ecoterrorist who leads a delusional group of animal rights activists. The role skyrocketed Pitt’s popularity and established him as one of the most talented young actors in the industry.

For the iconic scene in which Pitt manically delivers nervous, rapid-fire dialogue, the director Terry Gilliam was deeply concerned that the young actor would not be able to pull off the speech with credibility. As a result, Gilliam deprived Pitt of cigarettes, causing sensory deprivation.The director originally sent the Fight Club star to work with a speech coach to prepare for the speech before taking away Pitt’s cigarettes. This helped the actor get into the proper headspace to deliver the scene. It must have worked because it is considered one of the best supporting performances of the decade.

Pitt has also spoken about why he is always eating in his movies, he explained that it helps him deliver a more immersive performance, much like the lack of smoking on the set of 12 Monkeys. The Seven star recently shared the reason he is always eating on screen. “I like to busy myself; I’m a grazer by nature,” adding that if his on-screen roles demand him to eat, he will always do it.

This is especially notable in Oceans Eleven, where his character is eating in every scene. “We just had it well, there was actually a method to that because [his character] was always on the run, always on the move, I figured he could never sit down and have a proper meal. So he always had to grab something on the run.”

Why Brad Pitt Is Not Happy With His 12 Monkeys Performance

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Despite earning an Oscar nomination and winning a Golden Globe, Brad Pitt is not in love with his performance in 12 Monkeys. The actor revealed in an interview with The New York Times that he was only happy with his portrayal in the first half of the movie

“I nailed the first half of ’12 Monkeys.’ I got the second half all wrong. That performance bothered me because there was a trap in the writing. It’s not the writing’s fault, but it was something that I couldn’t figure out. I knew in the second half of the film I was playing the gimmick of what was real in the first half — until the last scene — and it bugged the f*** out of me.”

While he may not have won that Oscar, the movie went on to become a beloved sci-fi classic. Gilliam has praised Pitt for “working his a** off” and arriving on set ready. “This was his first day of filming,” Gilliam told PeopleTV’s Couch Surfing in regard to scenes where he is running and jumping around.“He just exploded on the set.”

Meanwhile, leading man Bruce Willis had to tone his performance down. Gilliam recalls telling the Die Hard actor, “I don’t want Bruce Willis the movie star, I want Bruce Willis the actor,” and asked him to come to set “naked,” without his Hollywood entourage. Gillam has also admitted Jeff Bridges was his first choice to play James Cole, but the studio wanted a bigger star.

“He did have his security guy, he did have his dietitian. He had the truck with all the exercise equipment, and all that,” the former Monty Python star explained. “But in Bruce Willis terms, that was coming naked, basically.”

What Finally Made Brad Pitt Give Up Smoking

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Although Terry Gillam deprived him of cigarettes during the filming of 12 Monkeys, it didn’t help him quit smoking altogether. The Once Upon A Time In Hollywood actor finally quit smoking during the pandemic after realizing he couldn’t simply “cut back.”
“I don’t have that ability to do just one or two a day,” he explained. “It’s not in my makeup. I’m all in. And I’m going to drive into the ground. I’ve lost my privileges.” .” Writer Otessa Moshfegh also revealed that when interviewing the Bullet Train actor, he offered her a nicotine mint as “he chews them mindlessly.”

After divorcing Angelina Jolie, the Oscar winner got sober and spent a year and a half attending Alcoholics Anonymous. “I had a really cool men’s group here that was really private and selective, so it was safe,” he explained. “Because I’d seen things of other people who had been recorded while they were spilling their guts, and that’s just atrocious to me.”

Whilst he has fond memories of smoking “in the morning, with the coffee — just delicious,” he also knows his body can’t handle smoking anymore. “I don’t think I have that. I’m just at that age when nothing good comes from it.”