Commentary; True Romance

Hi I’m Brad Pitt. Umm I got involved with the film because I was having earlier discussions with Tony about playing actually a much bigger role in the film. And to be honest I really didn’t quite get it. I didn’t. In retrospect to me the film is kind of a, like a young guy’s wet dream. You know he gets the drugs, he gets the girl, pulls of the heist and off into the sunset. I didn’t get that at the time I took it much too literally. And all I could see was this guy on this rump he gets his dad killed and then [laughs] they make no mention of it afterwards and… it bothered me. I just took it too literally.

And of course seeing it, I think it is fantastic, it is actually one of my favorites. But also I just finished Kalifornia and I didn’t, it felt like a similar thing. And so I didn’t think I was the right guy for it. I wasn’t the guy. But I liked Tony so much. I had such laughs with him. I wanted to do something in it. And so, reading through it, this one guy stuck out to me. He was a very small character but he, but because he opened his mouth every one else gets killed in the end [laughs] and I figure if you’re gonna make a film and it’s gonna go down this road, that’s kinda interesting to me. Because of his indiscretion, because he shows all his cards, he gets every one else in trouble. So that was kinda interesting. So I talked to Tony ‘No not for me, I’m not the guy but I would… I like this little guy and I’ll go do this.’ I don’t think any one was in the film at that time. I had no idea they were gonna load it with… James Gandolfini and Gary Oldman and Dennis Hopper and on and on and so forth. And it was really fortunate to kinda walk in to that.

And then as it got closer to shooting time, we were getting my part off in two days and a couple days before I was supposed to be on set, I called Tony up and I asked him if I could make him a stoner. The idea behind making him a stoner is because he was always in one location and I figured if he’s sitting in the same spot, well… [laughs] he’s gotta be a stoner! And I called him up and said ‘can we do this?’ and he said ‘yea’ and I said ‘can we even, can we keep him on the couch in every scene?’ and he said ‘yea’. And then when I got to set there was the bong and the bong actually came from a climbing partner of Tony. I think the bong’s name was Russell and I’ve ‘heard’ they sell them at shops
now.

Floyd: Don’t condescend me man, I fuckin’ kill ya man’

[Laughs] That is just about being a tough guy in your own mind [laughs] I wasn’t really acting on it.

‘Hey Floyd, why don’t you get outta my ear, get a fucking job’

That’s all adlib by Rappaport and we hit it off instantly, we started, while they were setting out the lights, starting riffing and the characters were, I was the pain in the ass roommate who always trashed the place and never helped out in a sense. And we kinda ran with that and that became the flavor and any of that stuff.

[Watching the scene of Brad’s character Floyd sitting in the kitchen
wearing this 3 colored beanie hat]

This hat, I actually found it in Venice in the street [laughs] a couple of weeks before it was run over a few times, a few thousand times and I threw it in the wash and we used it for the flick.

Beautiful music. Little homage to badlands.

Floyd: Hey get some beer… and some.. and some cleaning products’

This buddy I had he was worthless and he always wanted me to buy… I always had to pay for all his shit and then he would act like he was gonna help out, he’d tell me he’d pick up things but he [laughs] of course he was never there.

[Watching the scene of Floyd taking a hit from the bong]

Okay! So it’s the last one [last scene] this last little segment and here Tony says ‘alright you can pick up the bong’. And so… the rest is history.

And the idea that this guy was so stoned that he actually sees the guns and he’s like ‘this is really cool!’ [Laughs]

My take on this one was he was on a game show or something, he had to get all the answers right.

Anyways, we got to make this whole character kinda on the spot where Rappaport was riffing on and the whole stoner aspect, it was a great time, literally in and out in two days and that was it and it’s actually one of the favorite things I have been a part of.