How Brad Pitt Almost Played The 'Button' Baby
Filed under: Drama, New Releases, Fandom, Newsstand, Brad Pitt
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This past week, a whole lot of you probably took in a screening of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (I took the girl to see it last night), and you've probably shared your opinions with friends, family and significant others. Some feel it's just way too long, while others argue it needs to be long in order for you, the audience member, to "feel" and adequately "experience" the main character's life-long journey. One aspect of the film a lot of people have discussed was how -- and there might be mild spoilers here -- if Brad Pitt's character starts out as a tiny old man, he should turn into an adult-sized baby at the end of the film. That would make the most sense, right?
Well, director David Fincher sat down with MTV recently and admitted that the original plan was to have Pitt play the baby. He says, "We were prepared to do that ... We just ran out of money. We could have made him into a baby. Anything you want to do, you can do now." Now THAT would've been worth the price of admission all on its own ... even though the image of Pitt as a big, weird-looking baby may have been all folks talked about afterward. Fincher also addressed those comparisons to Forest Gump, noting: "Forrest Gump? What's that? Instead of the ordinary man in extraordinary circumstances, I thought of [Benjamin] as an extraordinary man in very ordinary circumstances. I don't know how much an audience can relate to a guy who's aging backwards that ends up looking like Brad Pitt. My whole thing from the beginning has been that it's not high concept. The reason it's relatable is how it's dramatized. Everybody remembers their first kiss and hangover and person they fell in love with."
For those who've seen it, what do you think: Should Pitt have played an adult-sized baby?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
1-02-2009 @ 1:00PM
Sarah said...
A friend of mine made this exact same comment: Why does Benjamin end his life as a giant baby?
I had no problem with the way Fincher decided to handle that aspect, mostly because an adult-sized infant would have been SUPER CREEPY. But I can see my friend's point. The alternative would make more sense from a movie-logic standpoint.
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1-02-2009 @ 1:14PM
Janie said...
The movie could not be better. It was perfect and so-o-o entertaining!
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1-02-2009 @ 1:53PM
Melanie Addington said...
No! I am so glad he didn't. I had this idea that it would end in some weird SNL type skit with Brad Pitt's head hovering over the baby body...that would have been too creepy.
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1-02-2009 @ 6:30PM
Matthew said...
I agree that it would have been very creepy, but also I think it shows just the kind of person Daisy was and how much their love meant to her that she would take care of this child, as difficult as raising a child is [even though it was in reverse].
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1-02-2009 @ 2:38PM
GusGus said...
I don't think it is about being too creepy or not. the movie was long but I agree with Davis in the idea that everyone will choose one side of or the other ( too long/ needed to be long). in the end the movie was a solid one and Brad pitt would have been a awkward baby figure plus the old man character had to start out as a baby how else would he have been born? things like this just need to be left alone for them to have the movie work.
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1-02-2009 @ 2:48PM
Mike C. said...
No.
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1-02-2009 @ 3:52PM
jw said...
I thought of the Forest Gump comparison too, but you have to throw in a Jonathan Winters in Mork & Mindy reference too. Nanu, nanu.
The part of the movie that jumped the shark from me was when he left his family because he didn't want to be a burden as an infant, then proceeded to travel (by motorcycle!) the world and have adventures for the next decade before coming back apparently still enough of a man to have sex with her. Come on. It made no sense.
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1-02-2009 @ 5:00PM
Martin said...
A giant Pitt baby would have ruined the film for me; it would not have worked. I really enjoyed the film as is. Especially the technical marvels were, well, marvelous to watch. Pitt as an old man was, simply put, an awesome bit of digital trickery.
I did find myself constantly trying to figure out how old he was as opposed to how old he looked. Did anyone else have that? Some serious mind-math going on, at times.
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1-04-2009 @ 5:38PM
Marie said...
I also felt a bit of "Forest Gump" in a few scenes, however, it didn't take away from the creativeness of the movie's delivery. Regressing Brad Pitt back to a baby in size was ingenious because it made the process of Daisy loving him in that stage more realistic. Scientists may argue with Fincher's approach to life, but I appreciated the way Fincher skillfully transfered what was to be felt in the hearts of the actors and the viewers onto the screen.
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1-02-2009 @ 11:24PM
V.M.L. said...
Wow, when I read "giant baby" I was thinking of the one in SPIRITED AWAY and one in an episode of THE MARVELOUS MISADVENTURES OF FLAPJACK. Yeah, that would have been too weird.
BENJAMIN BUTTON was a good movie.
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1-03-2009 @ 10:00AM
Kat said...
Benjamin leaves his family, as says in his diary, so the baby won't remember him and attach. Also, Benjamin never lived in society as a part of a family. Daisy, and Queenie, knew about his condition but always before he had lived with people who didn't question him [the residents of the Nolan Home or tugboat crew]. How would Daisy have explained her companions appearance to others, especially Caroline' friends, friends' parents and school officials? Benjamin knew what the challenges were because he lived them in his [non-]childhood.
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1-03-2009 @ 4:24AM
joe said...
your article is twisting fincher's words - nothing in that interview indicates that brad would have been playing an "adult size" baby, only that he would have played "the baby." there is no discussion whatsoever about an 'alternate ending' or an 'alternate plan' for button's aging - and an adult sized baby would have been a MAJOR change to the story. the entire third act was about seeing him as a toddler with the mind of a elderly person. i find it highly doubtful that there was -ever- an adult size baby plan.
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1-03-2009 @ 2:08PM
TeacherMomof2 said...
I liked the way the film ended. By using an actual baby, the ending was far more gut-wrenching than it would've been with Pitt as a full-grown baby.
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1-03-2009 @ 7:54PM
Jason said...
I definitely walked away calling this movie "Fincher Gump."
The episodic nature of it, the knowing Southern mother, the time at war where he meets a cantankerous captain, and on and on.
As for the ending, I was thinking that Daisy was going to wander through the halls of the hospital with her daughter at the end as Katrina was raging and all chaos was breaking out and we'd discover a tiny baby in the nursery, and Daisy would hold Benjamin in her arms as the hurricane descended and they'd take their last breath together.
Baby-sized baby, though. If you're going to get caught up with "movie logic" with this movie there would be A LOT more problems than just man-sized baby problem.
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1-04-2009 @ 4:09PM
Michael said...
While I enjoyed this adaptation, it did take extreme liberties with the original short story, especially with regards to the debate posed in this post.
Read the original short story and F. Scott Fitzgerald's original intent will be clear: Benjamin was born a full grown 70 year old MAN and left this world as an infant BABY. He LOST his intelligence as he regressed to childhood and beyond - he didn't start out as a man/baby and end up as a baby/man.
Yet another instance where the book was so much better than the film... Oh well.
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1-05-2009 @ 9:57AM
Kevin said...
Agreed. I found this film to be simply Okay. It was certainly pretty to look at, and it did allow for an almost dream like viewing experience, but outside of that it didn't say anything or mean anything. I kept on waiting for some sort of message or purpose to the film, but it was so focused on how interesting the plot device was that it never extrapolated anything from it. Good, but nothing great. Read the short story.
1-19-2009 @ 2:44PM
Barb said...
I didn't have a problem with him regressing to a baby, but was wierd was that he was born a baby and died a baby. Had he been born a full grown old man, then it would have made more sense. But to be born a baby and die a baby really made you have to think this out.
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