Brad Pitt is breaking his own rule regarding the roles he has passed on.
While picking up the Maltin Modern Master Award at the Santa Barbara Film Festival, Pitt, 56, shared that he said no to Neo in 1999’s “The Matrix”.
“I’ll give you one, only one, because I really believe it was never mine,” Pitt told People after initially refusing to answer. “It’s not mine. It’s someone else’s and they go and make it. I really do believe in that. I really do. But I did pass on ‘The Matrix‘. I took the red pill.”
At the time, it was reported Pitt passed on the role after suffering from exhaustion from filming the epic “Seven Years In Tibet”. Eventually, Keanu Reeves was cast as Neo in a career-defining role he revisited in the two sequels and is currently bringing back in “The Matrix 4” alongside fellow original Canadian castmate Carrie-Anne Moss.
Pitt wasn’t the only one to pass on Neo. Nicolas Cage, Johnny Depp, and Val Kilmer all reportedly turned down the role, as did Will Smith who said no in favour of what would be a box office bomb, “Wild Wild West”.
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Last year, Smith posted a YouTube video about why he turned down the role, sharing the advice he’d give to his younger self.
“I’d go back to the ‘Wild Wild West’ [set] and I would say, ‘A–hole, why didn’t you do “The Matrix?”‘” he quipped.
