Brad Pitt Fight Club

Studying the acting performances of interesting actors is one of the most valuable exercises you can do and yet it is something that is rarely talked about in screenwriting courses and manuals.

I strongly recommend to screenwriters that they spend even five minutes every few days or so to take an extract from a script, watch the scene, and study how the actor plays it.

Brad Pitt in Fight Club gives a stand-out performance - what does he bring to the words on the page? How did the script help him to portray an intriguing, complex character?

Of course, you need to create your own individual character, so it's not a question of imitating. But watching screen actors at work means you can work 'backwards' as it were.

It can often be quite difficult to assess the final result of the scriptwriting process because by its nature, movie-making is a collaborative exercise.

Fight Club had a particularly chequered script history. The script was first written by Jim Uhls, based on the novel by Chuck Palahniuk.

When Brad Pitt came on board, he said he was concerned that Tyler Durden was too one-dimensional, so director David Fincher sought the advice of writer-director Cameron Crowe. Crowe suggested making the character of Tyler more ambiguous. Fincher also hired screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker and invited Pitt and Edward Norton to collaborate on rewriting the script.

For the purposes of this analysis of Brad Pitt in Fight Club, when I use the term 'screenwriter' it refers to the various individuals who contributed to the script.

Brad Pitt Fight Club:
The Script's Opening

 
F I G H T   C L U B

     by Jim Uhls

     based on a novel by Chuck Palahnuik

     2/16/98

     --------------------------------------------------------------

     SCREEN BLACK

                             JACK (V.O.)
                 People were always asking me, did I
                 know Tyler Durden.

     FADE IN:

     INT.  SOCIAL ROOM - TOP FLOOR OF HIGH RISE -- NIGHT

     TYLER has one arm around Jack's shoulder; the other hand
     holds a HANDGUN with the barrel lodged in JACK'S MOUTH.
     Tyler is sitting in Jack's lap.

     They are both sweating and disheveled, both around 30; Tyler
     is blond, handsome; and Jack, brunette, is appealing in a
     dry sort of way.  Tyler looks at his watch.

                             TYLER
                 One minute.
                       (looking out window)
                 This is the beginning.  We're at
                 ground zero.  Maybe you should say a
                 few words, to mark the occasion.

                             JACK
                 ... i... ann....iinn.. ff....nnyin...

                             JACK (V.O.)
                 With a gun barrel between your teeth,
                 you only speak in vowels.

     Jack tongues the barrel to the side of his mouth.

                             JACK
                       (still distorted)
                 I can't think of anything.

                             JACK (V.O.)
                 With my tongue, I can feel the
                 rifling in the barrel.  For a second,
                 I totally forgot about Tyler's whole
                 controlled demolition thing and I
                 wondered how clean this gun is.

     Tyler checks his watch.

                             TYLER
                 It's getting exciting now.

                             JACK (V.O.)
                 That old saying, how you always hurt
                 the one you love, well, it works both
                 way.

     Jack turns so that he can see down -- 31 STORIES.

                             JACK (V.O.)
                 We have front row seats for this
                 Theater of Mass Destruction.  The
                 Demolitions Committee of Project
                 Mayhem wrapped the foundation columns
                 of ten buildings with blasting
                 gelatin.  In two minutes, primary
                 charges will blow base charges, and
                 those buildings will be reduced to
                 smoldering rubble.  I know this
                 because Tyler knows this.

                             TYLER
                 Look what we've accomplised.
                       (checks watch)
                 Thirty seconds.

Of course, it's not easy to work out what notes the director may have given the actor, but that's OK. The purpose of the exercise is to expand your awareness of how movies work.

Too often screenwriting advice tends to treat the creating of a screenplay as if in isolation to all the other aspects of film-making. Studying actors is one way to improve your writing, just as looking at how directors direct and editors edit are also important.

If you haven't got a copy of the movie rent one or they're available here at a big discount.

Read the script and watch the movie. It's the best way to hone your screenwriting skills alongside your writing.

The Rules of Fight Club

But for now, we'll be looking at one of the most famous speeches in movie history. Brad Pitt in Fight Club delivering his 'keynote address' to the Club as the cool, nihilistic, subversive Tyler Durden.

You know the film I expect - a brilliant dark and funny satire on consumer culture, and alienated, disaffected young men. Edward Norton plays the narrator 'Jack' who moves into the delapidated house in the 'toxic waste' part of town with Tyler Durden - Brad Pitt.