Brad Pitt made a splash in 1991’s Thelma & Louise — a role which almost went to George Clooney.
“So, I was in TV. I was making a good living, but back then actors would say, ‘Well, I’m a film actor — I just happen to be doing TV,’” Clooney, 64, told The Times of London in a Saturday, November 29, profile. “I got to the final test for a role in Thelma & Louise. And, mother****er, Brad got it.”
In the 1991 film, a pair of best friends (played by Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon) set out on an adventure that ends with them being hunted by the police. Pitt, 61, got his big break playing J.D. in the film.
“I didn’t watch Thelma & Louise for years because I was annoyed,” Clooney recalled to The Times of losing the role. “The part launched his career in film. He was doing sitcoms and crap before, so when it was the thing that could’ve launched me? F***!”
Clooney and Pitt have been longtime friends and costars, often discussing the Thelma & Louise casting battle.
“Oh yeah, he gives me s***,” Clooney quipped of Pitt. “But, of course, when I saw it, I was, like, well it had to be that guy.”
Pitt’s J.D. has a major topless scene, which is how Clooney knew he wasn’t right for the part.
“I saw that at the cinema and when Brad took his shirt off people went nuts,” Clooney’s Jay Kelly costar Adam Sandler jokingly told The Times. “But it should have been you, Clooney.”
Geena Davis and Brad Pitt. MGM/ Courtesy of Everett Collection
Pitt and Clooney were just two of the actors that fought to play J.D. on the big screen, alongside Grant Show and Mark Ruffalo.
“Once I was cast, it was down to four finalists for that role,” Davis, now 69, said on the Graham Norton Show in 2022, detailing how Pitt was cast. “They said, ‘Would you read with them, so we could see [with] each one?’ [They all] came in, each one was handsome, they all had brown hair and were very talented. I didn’t care who it was going to be.”
According to Davis, Pitt was the last man to try out for the part.
“He’s so charismatic and so incredibly talented that I was screwing up his audition because I forgot to say my line,” she recalled. “I’m like, ‘Wow, he’s really talented.’ I didn’t know if they wanted my opinion or not, but I said, ‘Would you be interested in knowing my reaction?’ They said, ‘Oh, please.’”
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Davis then proclaimed that she liked “the blonde one.”
Losing a part in Thelma & Louise hasn’t hindered Clooney’s career in the slightest, who’s gone on to have an equally acclaimed run on the big screen.
“I’m constantly trying to figure things out about myself as I get older,” Clooney exclusively told Us Weekly at the Jay Kelly premiere last month. “At this point in my career and life, if somebody writes a really good script and a really good part, which there aren’t that many of, then you just jump on board and try not to mess it up. I’m 64. I’m not really ready to look backwards and sort of rest on [my career]. I sort of enjoy looking forward and seeing what’s coming next.”
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