David Fincher’s Fight Club is an extraordinary cinematic gem of 1999. The film spoke to a generation of disaffected youth who grew up listening to Rage Against the Machine and vandalizing road signs to anger “the Man.” Visually grimy, mysterious, and acting like a religion for seemingly disenfranchised males, one of the film’s standout characters is Helena Bonham Carter’s Marla, the love interest of Edward Norton’s narrator and protagonist. Before Carter joined the cast, Fincher considered Janeane Garofalo, Winona Ryder, and Courtney Love for the coveted role. Love was dating Norton at the time and longed to play the part. However, according to Love, she was fired from the film after Norton’s co-star, Brad Pitt, had her stricken from the cast list.
Speaking with Marc Maron on the actor’s podcast, WTF with Marc Maron, Love said Pitt got her fired from Fight Club after the Hole frontwoman rejected his pitch to play Kurt Cobain in a biopic about his life. According to Love, Pitt pitched the idea when the pair met with Gus Van Sant about adapting Brokeback Mountain.
“I wouldn’t let Brad play Kurt,” Love explained to Maron. “I went nuclear. I don’t do Faust. Who the fuck do you think are?” After the meeting, Love says Norton broke the news that she was fired from the film. “He [Norton] starts sobbing,” Love said. “And he was like, ‘I don’t have the power!'” Love says Fincher contacted her to cut ties shortly after that officially.
If there’s something Love knows how to do, she knows how to hold a grudge. According to Love, Pitt has made several attempts to get a Kurt Cobain biopic approved. Pitt’s latest attempt to pitch the idea happened in 2020, which Love and her representatives denied.
“I don’t know if I trust you and I don’t know that your movies are for profit,” Love stated to Maron’s audience, perhaps thinking Pitt might hear the show. “They’re really good social justice movies, but if you don’t get me, you kind of don’t get Kurt, and I don’t feel like you do, Brad.”
Would Courtney Love be good for Marla’s role in Fincher’s Fight Club? Should she and Pitt bury the hatchet so Pitt can make his Kurt Cobain biopic? Feel free to let us know in the comments below.