What’s It Like Watching Movies With David Fincher and Brad Pitt?

Movie Club sounds a lot more civil than Fight Club

"The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button" Japan Premiere
Actor Brad Pitt and director David Fincher attend the "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" Japan Premiere.
Jun Sato/WireImage

What’s not to like about having a movie night with your friends? Whether it’s watching something obscure or revisiting an old favorite, it’s a fine way to spend an evening. And it’s something plenty of people do, even — as it turns out — critically acclaimed directors and their movie-star collaborators.

A new article at IndieWire ventures into David Fincher’s movie-watching habits, which include inviting Brad Pitt over to talk shop. (Also present for some of these these movie nights: Steven Soderbergh.) It’s understandable: Fincher and Pitt have worked on three films together — Seven, Fight Club and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button — and Fincher helped Pitt write his award speeches for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

The article cites a recent conversation Pitt had with The New York Times in which he discussed watching movies with Fincher. Surprisingly, a certain New England Patriots coach came up in the discussion.

“He’ll be muttering the whole time: ‘That shot works. That’s a bad handoff. Why would you go to the insert of the glove there? Stabilize!’ It’s like watching a football game with Bill Belichick,” Pitt said.

It’s not the only recent instance of high-profile actors and directors socializing far from movie sets. The story of how Natasha Lyonne ended up with a cameo in the film Ad Astra involves director James Gray’s penchant for cooking especially fragrant dishes. No word if there’s anything Belichick-esque about his approach to food preparation, however.

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