‘Heart of the Beast’ Star Brad Pitt Once Lost a Cult Horror Sequel Role, and the Director Forgot He Auditioned

Today, Brad Pitt is one of the most recognizable actors in the world, with two Academy Awards and films that have grossed more than $9 billion worldwide. His path there wasn’t a straight line. He began with uncredited parts in 1987 and spent years in supporting roles before his career took off.

That early stretch included plenty of near misses. Even his breakthrough part in ‘Thelma & Louise’ reportedly slipped away twice before it came back around, and the role was first given to William Baldwin before Pitt landed it. It’s a reminder that even the biggest stars have a long list of auditions that didn’t pan out.

One of those auditions has surfaced again as Pitt auditioned for the lead in the cult horror sequel ‘Phantasm II’ and didn’t get the role, and the film’s director didn’t remember rejecting him for years.

The story starts with a studio demand. ‘Phantasm II’ arrived on July 8, 1988, as the sequel to Don Coscarelli’s 1979 cult classic ‘Phantasm.’ Universal gave the film a $3 million budget, the lowest of any Universal film in the 1980s but the highest in the ‘Phantasm’ franchise.

With that money came conditions. The studio wanted a working actor in the lead and pushed Coscarelli to recast, forcing him to choose between A. Michael Baldwin, who played Mike Pearson in the original, and Reggie Bannister. He kept Bannister and went looking for a new Mike, eventually casting James LeGros.

Coscarelli has said he saw a long list of actors during that search, and Pitt was among them. Pitt didn’t get the part, and the recast became a point of controversy for fans.

Coscarelli learned about the audition much later, and it came from Baldwin. Speaking on a SiriusXM radio show to promote his book ‘True Indie: Life and Death in Filmmaking,’ he said Baldwin had been friends with Jennifer Aniston before she became famous. At a gathering with Aniston and her new boyfriend, Pitt, the star walked over and told Baldwin he had tried out for the movie and hadn’t gotten the role.

Coscarelli didn’t believe it at first, because he reasoned he would remember turning down someone who became that famous. A few months later, he found an old videocassette of audition tapes and watched until the casting director opened the door and introduced Pitt. According to the director, Pitt was good-looking and his reading was very good.

SlashFilm reports that Pitt read the cemetery scene from the film. The tape settled the question, even if Coscarelli says he had no memory of it.

The recast itself left a mark. ‘Phantasm II’ was not well received by critics, and LeGros has been remembered fondly by the cast, with Coscarelli, Angus Scrimm and Bannister all speaking warmly about working with him. Baldwin, on the other hand, is known to resent being absent from that film.

Baldwin returned for ‘Phantasm III: Lord of the Dead’ in 1994 and played Mike in every installment afterward. Those later films were made independently, which gave Coscarelli control over casting.

It’s easy to imagine a different timeline in which Pitt headlined a horror sequel instead of waiting for a bigger break. Instead, his breakout arrived in 1991 with ‘Thelma & Louise,’ and it led to leading-man roles in ‘A River Runs Through It,’ ‘Legends of the Fall,’ ‘Seven’ and ‘Fight Club.’ He later won an Oscar for ‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.’

The story also fits a familiar Hollywood pattern. Rejection and recasting are part of nearly every career, and sometimes the one who passes on a future star simply doesn’t remember it.

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