Courtney Love Claims Brad Pitt Got Her Fired From 'Fight Club'

Deadline reports that singer and actress Courtney Love aired out some past drama during an appearance on "WTF with Marc Maron" earlier this week. During the podcast appearance, Love claimed that she was cast for the role of Marla Singer in the 1999 movie Fight Club. However, actor and star Brad Pitt allegedly got her "fired" from the role after shutting down  Pitt on portraying the role of her late husband, Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain, when he tried to pitch her on the idea.

The role of Marla Singer in the film ultimately went to Oscar-nominated actress Helena Bonham Carter. Also, Love was dating "Fight Club" co-star Edward Norton at the time the alleged firing took place.

According to Love's account, she "went nuclear" when Pitt first brought up the idea of portraying Cobain. The musician passed away in 1994 at 27 years old after committing suicide. Years later, she said looking back that she would have rather allowed Pitt to think she would go along with the idea until completing production on "Fight Club."

After the apparent firing took place, Norton told Love that he did not have any power to get her rehired to the production. Love did compliment Carter, who ultimately portrayed Singer in the film, and called her a "genius." She also admitted that she has still "never seen" the movie all these years later.

Speaking to Deadline, a source close to the original "Fight Club" production said that while Love did audition for the role of Marla Singer in the film, she was never offered the part "at any point." The anonymous individual stated, "You cannot be fired for a job you didn’t get. It’s common knowledge that roles are not decided by other actors but by the director."

Love stated that Pitt had first shown interest in making a film about the late Cobain as early as 1996. She also said that he approached her about producing a film about the late rocker through his Plan B production company as late as 2020. During the podcast appearance, she detailed a Zoom meeting with Pitt and opted not to move forward with the project.

Love recounted on her meeting with the Oscar-winning actor and producer, "I did a Zoom with him and I stuck up for myself. I said, 'Listen, man. I don’t know that I trust you, and I don’t know that your movies are for-profit.'" She continued, "'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.'"

The Hole frontwoman did sound open to the idea of a potential Cobain biopic as long as it was made with the right people. She did endorse Warner Bros. Pictures lead executives Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy as people she'd possibly be willing to work with on such a project.

Love did land some major film roles in the 1990s. In 1996, she starred opposite Woody Harrelson in "The People vs. Larry Flynt" as Flynt's wife, Althea Leasure Flynt. The film earned Harrelson an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor, and director Milos Forman was also nominated for Best Director.

She collaborated with Forman once again for the 1999 Andy Kaufman biopic, "Man on the Moon," co-starring opposite Jim Carrey as Kaufman's longtime girlfriend, Lynne Margulies.

20th Century Fox released "Fight Club" in 1999. The film was directed by David Fincher from a script by Jim Uhls, based on the novel of the same name by Chuck Palahniuk. Pitt is famously known for his performance as Tyler Durden in the film. While the film was not a box office smash upon its initial release, it earned a great deal of critical acclaim and has been hailed as a classic in the ensuing years.