Courtney Love doubled down on her claims that Brad Pitt had her fired from the 1999 film Fight Club because she would not give up the rights to her legendary late husband Kurt Cobain‘s biopic. On Dec. 26, Courtney, 58, appeared as a guest on Marc Maron’s WTF Podcast, where she opened up about the entire situation, telling the audience that she was cast in Fight Club and that she was let go because she would not allow Brad’s production company, Plan B, to produce it. She also said that Brad, 59, hounded her to star in the biopic about Kurt — the Nirvana frontman who infamously died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound at the height of his fame in 1994.
After the podcast, Courtney — who was dating Brad’s Fight Club co-star Edward Norton at the time when the movie was made — spoke out about the ordeal, again. In a Dec. 30 post that she shared on her Instagram, she wrote that she was fired over her refusal to budge on her ex-husband’s biopic. However, a source who worked on Fight Club told HollywoodLife that Courtney was “never offered” the role to begin with! “Nearly twenty-five years ago, Courtney Love auditioned for a role in ‘Fight Club’, a role she was never offered at any point,” the film insider told us, adding, “You cannot be fired for a job you didn’t get. It’s common knowledge that roles are not decided by other actors but by the director.” To note, Fight Club was directed by David Fincher, not by Brad.
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Yet Courtney did not see it that way. In the lengthy Instagram post, Courtney wrote, “Hi. Regarding a story I told on the @marcmaron #wtf podcast. A story I was never going to tell. Brad 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. I understand how much of a game of roulette casting is. I am not here 22 years later bitching about losing a part playing someone’s side piece in a movie.”
She continued, “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**t on them, and by 7 pm I was fired from ‘Fight Club’. Every word of this is factual. This was always a secret that I was fine keeping. It’s a movie. Indeed, I passed on better roles than [sic] that. Who cares? The point is Brad kept on stalking me about Kurt.”
After going on about her recovery from substance abuse, which she has been open with her fans about over the years, she claimed that Brad tried to talk to her about the biopic on her rocker ex-husband, again, on a Zoom call in 2020. “It’s not just the Zoom I had with Brad in 2020 where I said no to @planbfilms and Brad producing it,” Courtney wrote, “It’s that I said NO on the Zoom and that was not enough. I was not heard. I was ignored.”
“I had no plans to bring it up with Marc Maron but up it came. I told the story because I felt Pitt would not stop pursuing Kurt — unless I said it in public. I don’t want Brad to be pissed off at me and become his resentment. I want him to do better. I’m not into assault. C’mon brother Pitt. I wish you well, truly,” Courtney wrote.
“If he’s mad at me, that’s his problem. I enjoy him as a movie star immensely,” Courtney wrote about Brad, before ending it with a jab that read, “Not so much as a biopic producer. Hope this clarifies and thanks for your time.” Ultimately, as fans know, Helena Bonham Carter was cast in Fight Club opposite Brad and Edward. Courtney ended her Instagram post by stating, “I’m sure Helena Bonham Carter was utterly meant to be Marla Singer and I do not bear her or Edward Norton or David Fincher — all people whose work and Genius I respect immensely — any ill will.”
HollywoodLife reached out to Courtney’s publicist regarding the film insider’s claim that she was never cast in the film, but we have not heard back yet.