{"id":142495,"date":"2020-12-28T00:16:00","date_gmt":"2020-12-27T21:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/12-monkeys-was-brad-pitts-career-defining-performance\/"},"modified":"2020-12-28T00:16:00","modified_gmt":"2020-12-27T21:16:00","slug":"12-monkeys-was-brad-pitts-career-defining-performance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/12-monkeys-was-brad-pitts-career-defining-performance\/","title":{"rendered":"#&#8217;12 Monkeys&#8217; was Brad Pitt&#8217;s Career-Defining Performance"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;<strong>#&#8217;12 Monkeys&#8217; was Brad Pitt&#8217;s Career-Defining Performance<\/strong>&#8221;<\/p>\n<div>\n<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\">\n                <\/aside>\n<p><!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 3.7.8--><em>Acting is an art form, and behind every iconic character is an artist expressing themselves. Welcome to\u00a0The Great Performances, a bi-weekly column exploring the art behind some of cinema\u2019s best roles. In this entry, we revisit Brad Pitt\u2019s Academy Award-nominated performance in 12 Monkeys.<\/em><\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator is-style-wide\"\/>Before he moved to Hollywood in the late 1980s, <strong>Brad Pitt<\/strong> had zero acting experience. He had just spent four years working towards a <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.poynter.org\/reporting-editing\/2011\/why-brad-pitt-dropped-out-of-missouri-journalism-school\/\">Journalism degree at the University of Missouri<\/a>, but two weeks shy of graduation, Pitt turned his back on college and headed west. He knew he wanted something more out of his life, and he hoped to find it in film. As <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.esquire.com\/entertainment\/movies\/interviews\/a22679\/brad-pitt-cover-interview-0613\/\">he told <em>Esquire<\/em><\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\"><p>\u00a0\u201cI just knew there were a lot more points of view out there. I wanted to see them. I wanted to hear them. I always liked film as a teaching tool \u2014 a way of getting exposed to ideas that had never been presented to me. It just wasn\u2019t on the list of career options where I grew up. Then it occurred to me, literally two weeks before graduation: If the opportunity isn\u2019t here, I\u2019ll go to it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>After Pitt arrived in California, he im<a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/social-mediaa\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"1\" title=\"Social Media\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">media<\/a>tely began enrolling in acting classes. The teachers he found, though, were too, <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.backstage.com\/magazine\/article\/brad-pitt-interview-59543\/\">as he described to <em>Backstage<\/em><\/a>, \u201cguru-ish,\u201d evoking a self-help coach more than Stanislavski. It wasn\u2019t until he had a chance encounter with a s<a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/trip-and-travel\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"10\" title=\"Trip &amp; Travel\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">trip<\/a>per\u2019s boyfriend at his survival job as a limo driver that Pitt connected with the well-renowned acting teacher Roy London. Through his work with London, the ideas behind acting techniques began to click.<\/p>\n<p>What made London so attractive to new actors is that he didn\u2019t box them into one method or another. He was influenced by Uta Hagen, but it wasn\u2019t solely about the psycho-physical connection between actors and their characters. He wanted his students to surprise an audience by surprising themselves first. London encouraged actors to make bold, engaging choices so that a character\u2019s thoughts can be spontaneous and, in turn, feel more realistic. <\/p>\n<p>As London <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/archives\/la-xpm-1992-05-02-ca-1104-story.html\">told the <em>Los Angeles Times<\/em><\/a>, \u201cI\u2019m always telling my students how important it is to be doing new things. I tell them that good acting is when you are hired to do something you can do well and then delivering the goods. But great acting, which is what I am interested in, is about setting things up so that you are experiencing something for the first time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>London\u2019s core concept \u2013 that an actor should make surprising choices \u2013 is central to why Pitt\u2019s performance as Jeffrey Goines in Terry Gilliam\u2019s <em><strong>12 Monkeys<\/strong><\/em> so riveting: he\u2019s utterly unpredictable, and it\u2019s insanely fun to watch.<\/p>\n<p>His performance took the industry by surprise, especially considering how Hollywood viewed him up until then. In the early \u201990s, Pitt\u2019s biggest roles \u2013 from <em>A River Runs Through It<\/em> and <em>Legends of the Fall<\/em> to <em>Interview with the Vampire <\/em>\u2013 kept him in the mold of a believably brooding heartthrob. It\u2019s an image that of course helped him enormously in his early career. Even in a B-horror movie like <em>Cutting Class<\/em>, his natural magnetism is <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>arent. It\u2019s undoubtedly what landed him his first big break as the hunky hitchhiker in Ridley Scott\u2019s <em>Thelma &amp; Louise<\/em>. He\u2019s affable and memorable as J.D., even if it\u2019s less for his acting than it is for how great he looks without a shirt on.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Pitt has never been able to shake how the industry perceives him, but with <em>12 Monkeys<\/em> he began to break from his image, using his good looks less as a tool to make people swoon, and more as a means to take an audience off guard. No one was anticipating that he\u2019d give such a committed performance that completely subverted his reputation.<\/p>\n<p>That doesn\u2019t mean <em>12 Monkeys<\/em> was the first time Pitt stepped outside of the box that Hollywood put him in. In 1993, he co-starred in <em>Kalifornia<\/em> as Early, a murderer road tripping with a journalist (David Duchovny) who\u2019s writing a book about serial killers. Early gave audiences their first taste of what Pitt could do with a more complex character, except his performance doesn\u2019t have the specificity or spontaneity that makes his role in <em>12 Monkeys<\/em> so enrapturing. From scene to scene you can see the actor working, rather than disappearing, into his character. On the page, it\u2019s unlike anything we had seen from him, but he made easy choices in a role that still capitalized on his inherent pensive charisma. The character was unique to his career at the time, even though his performance wasn\u2019t exactly surprising.<\/p>\n<p>The same can\u2019t be said for his work in <em>12 Monkeys<\/em>. When we\u2019re introduced to Jeffrey, it\u2019s in a mental institution where time traveler James Cole (Bruce Willis) is interred. Pitt collaborated with a doctor to ensure that he wasn\u2019t portraying a gross mischaracterization of someone with mental illness, but he didn\u2019t make bold choices purely based on Jeffrey\u2019s psychological state. Instead, he uses his chaotic surroundings to inform how he reacts in any given moment. He embodies the manic energy of the institution to act as an exhilarating contrast to Willis\u2019 understated performance, following his impulses so every line is approached from surprising new angles. As he speaks to Willis in a frenzy about the evils of capitalism, he glides seamlessly between neurotic rantings and coyish impersonations of hospital staff, deploying different tactics so we can\u2019t anticipate what he\u2019ll do next. He\u2019s electric in these opening moments because we\u2019ve never seen him be so capricious.<\/p>\n<p>More striking than the sheer dynamics of his performance is how Pitt\u2019s bold choices don\u2019t feel forced. Even when he\u2019s speaking wildly with his full body, it doesn\u2019t feel like actorly decisions, but the natural reactions of an unwell man. He avoids becoming a parody of mental illness by playing Jeffrey truthfully. He does this by staying present in every scene he\u2019s in. His connection to the character is best seen in the moments between each of his lines. As Jeffrey\u2019s mind seems to drift away in thought, we can watch Pitt\u2019s eyes keep him rooted to his character\u2019s present moment. Even in his most physically outrageous scenes, bounding between hospital beds with his ass hanging out, his commitment is unwavering. Jeffrey feels real because Pitt stays engaged with him beat to beat, never allowing us to see the actor behind the performance.<\/p>\n<p>In a way, Jeffrey Goines can be seen as Pitt\u2019s revolt against his own image, a performance where he could contort his body and face into abstract expressions that told the audience he is unafraid of challenging himself and how he is viewed in Hollywood. <em>12 Monkeys<\/em> smashed our perceptions of who Brad Pitt was as an actor by proving he is so much more than a sex symbol: he is an artist willing to take risks. It\u2019s an aspect of Pitt that we\u2019ve now come to expect in his roles post-<em>12 Monkeys<\/em>. He\u2019s constantly experimenting with the ways he brings his characters to life, whether it\u2019s through weaponizing his own attractiveness in <em>Fight Club<\/em>, playing with dialects in <em>Snatch<\/em> and <em>Inglourious Basterds<\/em>, or really any of the <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=rCTm-JEsEe8\">goofy food-related choices<\/a> he makes in practically every movie he\u2019s in. If he hadn\u2019t stepped outside of his comfort zone in 1995, who knows what kind of career he may have had.<\/p>\n<p>In 2019, we named Brad Pitt our Performer of the Year for his one-two punch of <em>Ad Astra<\/em> and <em>Once Upon a Time in Hollywood<\/em>. His role in the latter stood out particularly because it acts as a synthesis of everything Pitt had worked towards throughout his career. Sure, Cliff Booth is handsome with a sunburnt charm Pitt is effortless at exuding, but he injects the character with nuance and pathos. He takes the strength of conviction written into Cliff and uses it to convey the attachment he feels towards his movie star BFF Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio.) While the characters couldn\u2019t be further apart, this considerate approach is something Pitt gained thanks to his kinetic work in <em>12 Monkeys.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>If Pitt\u2019s early career was centered around his boyish good looks, his latter career has been defined by character roles that captivate audiences through interesting, unexpected choices. His unhinged performance as Jeffrey Goines is fully committed, thoroughly entertaining, and always surprising; everything we\u2019ve come to love in Brad Pitt over the last twenty-five years.\n<\/p><\/div>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMLG0nwswvr63Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">For forums sites go to <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/forum.buradabiliyorum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more Like this articles, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/social-media\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Social Media category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/filmschoolrejects.com\/brad-pitt-12-monkeys\/#utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=brad-pitt-12-monkeys\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;#&#8217;12 Monkeys&#8217; was Brad Pitt&#8217;s Career-Defining Performance&#8221; Acting is an art form, and behind every iconic character is an artist expressing themselves. Welcome to\u00a0The Great Performances, a bi-weekly column exploring the art behind some of cinema\u2019s best roles. In this entry, we revisit Brad Pitt\u2019s Academy Award-nominated performance in 12 Monkeys. Before he moved to&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":142496,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/filmschoolrejects.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Brad-Pitt-in-12-Monkeys.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[62223,33698,45556,15257],"class_list":["post-142495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-social-mediaa","tag-12-monkeys","tag-brad-pitt","tag-terry-gilliam","tag-the-great-performances"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142495"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142495\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/142496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}