David Fincher’s Se7en played a part in reinvigorating Brad Pitt’s passion for acting during the early years of his career.
During a Monday appearance on Dax Shepard’s Armchair Expert podcast, the F1: The Movie star reflected on what he described as “the most unhealthy time” in his life during the summer of 1994. He admitted that after having “not such great experiences coming off a couple of jobs,” he wasn’t sure where his career was heading.
“I had not such great experiences coming off a couple of jobs and I just wasn’t really sure what I was doing. I had the weirdest summer,” he said. “It was the most unhealthy time, I just needed to check out and I would wake up, I would get a bong load, I’d have four Coca Colas on no ice, no food this particular summer, and I watched the O.J. trial, trying to figure out what do I do next? What do I do next?”
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Pitt found himself “reinvigorated” after he was presented with the Se7en script, though he was still initially hesitant about the film’s storyline before he met with the director.
“Then I read this script, my dear friend and manager and basically my sister now, Cynthia, sends this over, [and] she says, ‘You got to read this.’ I read the first seven pages, I call her up and I go, ‘Are you kidding me?’” Pitt explained. “Like, [it was] the cliché old cop wants out, the young cop comes in and he’s looking at his high school football trophies?’ She goes, ‘Just finish it.’ Then I go meet Finch, and he was just talking about films like I’d never heard anyone speak about film.”
The Oscar winner added, “I just got the jones back, and finding that thing, it just reinvigorated what I wanted out of this thing.”
Se7en follows the story of Detective William Somerset (Morgan Freeman), who is about to retire, and David Mills (Pitt), as they track down a serial killer (Kevin Spacey) who murders people who he believes have committed one of the seven deadly sins. The film earned a sole nomination at the 68th Academy Awards for best film editing.