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The recent walk-up to the 25th anniversary of Thelma & Louise resurfaced plenty of great set gossip, like how Brad Pitt nearly sabotaged the film with his hunky-ness in the role of J.D. (Geena Davis would go googly-eyed over him and flub her lines, which is—fun fact—the first time anyone has ever related to the inimitable Geena Davis). Also, Ridley Scott would spray Pitt’s abs with Evian for that signature washboard sheen. And now, _T & L-_heads will be excited to learn that there’s a new behind-the-scenes book on the movie out today called Off the Cliff: How the Making of Thelma & Louise Drove Hollywood to the Edge.
Or maybe this isn’t news. Maybe you, a true fan, had it marked on your calendar with proprietary car and cliff stickers. Regardless, Ira Belgrade, an assistant casting director, spoke to the book’s author, Becky Aikman, about the struggle to cast the highly covetable part of the handsome drifter J.D., which would become Pitt’s breakout role. The story will be familiar to the real fans: William Baldwin dropped out at the last minute to take another role; the backup couldn’t get out of his television contract in order to film it; George Clooney read for the part, but was literally forgettable (How! Is! That! Possible!); even Dermot Mulroney came up short; and now this bit of news: Robert Downey Jr., who was 25 at the time and coming off a series of films, made a play for it, as Vulture first noted.
Heeding what Aikman calls a “distress signal” to talent agencies, the head casting director told Belgrade, “CAA says Robert Downey Jr. will take it for whatever we have in the budget.”
Belgrade countered with, “Isn’t he too short? Next to Geena?” and Scott seemed to agree. (Downey Jr. is five-foot-nine; Pitt is five-foot-eleven.) They kept on searching and eventually that fateful Pitt/Davis screen test happened.
There you have it. It could be argued that Pitt’s sheer star power would have elevated him to the glowing Hollywood beacon we have today—if that hair dryer scene never happened, we would be talking about him anyway. But for now, just thank the mere two inches Pitt has on Downey.
