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‘Brad pushed me a bridge too far’: Courtney Love doubles down on claim Brad Pitt got her fired from Fight Club

‘I don’t like the way he does business or wields his power,’ Love said of Pitt on Instagram

Tom Murray
Friday 30 December 2022 20:12 GMT
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Courtney Love is not backing down on claims she made about being fired from Fight Club because she wouldn’t allow Brad Pitt to play her late husband, Kurt Cobain.

Earlier this week, during an appearance on the WTF with Marc Maron podcast, Love alleged that she was originally cast to play Marla, a character eventually portrayed by Helena Bonham Carter.

Love told host Marc Maron that she was fired from Fight Club after she “went nuclear” on Pitt and film director Gus Van Sant when they approached her about making a film about Cobain.

Love’s claim was disputed by a source who told Variety that she was never cast in the role after her audition.

“You cannot be fired for a job you didn’t get,” the source said. “It’s common knowledge that roles are not decided by other actors but by the director.”

However, the Hole musician doubled down on her story in an Instagram post shared Friday (30 December), claiming production had already started when she was allegedly fired from Fight Club.

“Hi. Regarding a story I told on the @marcmaron #wtf podcast. A story I was never going to tell. Brad [Pitt] pushed me a bridge too far. I don’t like the way he does business or wields his power. It’s a simple fact, and it started during the production of Fight Club,” she wrote.

“I understand how much of a game of roulette casting is. I am not here 22 years later b****ing about losing a part playing someone’s side piece in a movie.

“On the podcast, I recount the day Brad & Gus Van Sant called me from lunch and tried to blackmail me over my role, for the rights to a film about Kurt. I lost my s*** on them, and by 7pm I was fired from Fight Club. Every word of this is factual. This was always a secret that I was fine keeping,” she said.

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“It’s a movie. Indeed, I passed on better roles that [sic] that. Who cares?” Love wrote. “The point is Brad kept on stalking me about Kurt.”

Courtney Love and Kurt Cobain with their daughter Frances Vean at the MTV Awards in LA, 1993
Courtney Love and Kurt Cobain with their daughter Frances Vean at the MTV Awards in LA, 1993 (Fotos International/Shutterstock)

Love married the Nirvana frontman in 1992. Cobain died at 27, two years later in 1994. The couple had one child together, Frances Bean Cobain, who is now 30.

“I wouldn’t let Brad play Kurt,” Love said on Maron’s podcast previously. “I went nuclear. I don’t do Faust. Who the f*** do you think are?”

Love recalled details of their alleged discussion, stating that she told Pitt: “I don’t know if I trust you and I don’t know that your movies are for profit. They’re really good social justice movies, but… if you don’t get me, you kind of don’t get Kurt, and I don’t feel like you do, Brad.”

She said that Edward Norton was the one to first break the news of her removal from the film to her.

“He starts sobbing,” Love claimed. “He was like, ‘I don’t have the power!’” She then apparently received a call from director David Fincher, who confirmed that she would no longer be playing Marla.

Representatives for Pitt and Fincher did not respond to The Independent’s requests for comment. Van Sant’s representatives did not immediately respond to The Independent’s request for comment.

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