Courtney Love is reiterating her claim that she was fired from the 1999 film Fight Club because she would not allow Brad Pitt to play her late husband, Kurt Cobain.
The musician, who was married to the Nirvana frontman from 1992 until his death in 1994, originally made the allegation during an appearance on the WTF with Marc Maron podcast.
Love stated that she had been cast as the character Marla, a role eventually portrayed by Helena Bonham Carter, but was fired after she “went nuclear” on Pitt and film director Gus Van Sant when they approached her about making a film about Cobain.
However, a source disputed Love’s claim, telling Variety that she was never actually 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.”
Despite this, Love stood by her story in an Instagram post shared on December 30, claiming that production on the film had already started when she was allegedly fired.
“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.
Love went on to explain that she was not upset about losing the role of Marla, but rather the circumstances surrounding her departure from the film.
“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.
“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.”
Love further stated that she had refused to allow Pitt to play Cobain because she did not trust him or his motivations.
“I wouldn’t let Brad play Kurt,” she said on the Maron podcast.
“I went nuclear. I don’t do Faust. Who the f*** do you think are?” Love recalled telling 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.”
According to Love, it was Edward Norton who first informed her of her removal from the film. “He starts sobbing,” she claimed.
“He was like, ‘I don’t have the power!’”
She then reportedly received a call from director David Fincher, who confirmed that she would no longer be playing Marla.
