Courtney Love’s Version: She Was Fired From “Fight Club” Because She Didn’t Let Brad Pitt Play Kurt Cobain

Courtney Love could have played the role of Marla Singer in the classic Fight Club, but it didn’t happen because of Brad Pitt’s interference. Or so the singer and actress herself claims.

Although it’s been over two decades since the 1999 film came out, Love talks about the circumstances surrounding it on Marc Maron’s WTF podcast.

There, she claims she originally got the role, in which she would have co-starred with Brad Pitt and her then-boyfriend Edward Norton.

Before filming began, however, Love received a phone call from director Gus Van Sant. He says he’s with Brad Pitt and the two would like to make a biopic about Courtney’s late husband, Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain. As his widow, she must consent to the project.

“Gus told me that Brad really wanted to make a movie about music, about Kurt. It was the turn of the century, no one had done it. I went wild. ‘Who the hell are you thinking?’ I said to him,” he says. Courtney.

She rather rudely explains to Brad Pitt that she can’t play Kurt Cobain.

Then he gets a call from Fight Club director David Fincher. He informs her that she has been removed from the cast of the film. The role eventually went to Helena Bonham Carter.

Love claims that the connection between the two events is direct and that she was fired from “Fight Club” because she refused Brad Pitt to play the late Kurt Cobain.

The frontman’s widow says that since she was removed from the film, she hasn’t even been able to watch it, but is still glad that “her” Marla is played by Bonham Carter.

“By the way, God bless Helena Bonham Carter. She’s a genius. I’ve never seen that movie. And yes, I got fired for not letting Brad play Kurt,” Love explains.

Another former candidate, Jeanine Garofalo, also claims that she was originally chosen for the role of Marla. She announced a few years ago on the Yahoo Build Series that she should have gotten the part, but Edward Norton wanted it for her boyfriend, Love. Brad Pitt, according to Garofalo, was against it, which is why Bonham Carter ended up playing the part in the film.

However, Norton then denied and explained to CNN that director David Fincher chose his actors himself.

Pitt’s interest in Cobain – according to Love – did not end there. “My friend Cameron Crowe (director of ‘Vanilla Sky’ – b.c.) told me that Brad Pitt was willing to turn the world around to pursue me for Kurt – back in 1996,” the singer announced.

In 2020, the two have spoken again – the actor wanted to produce a movie about Kurt, but Kourtney again refused him, albeit more kindly.

“We had a Zoom conversation. I justified myself, I told him, ‘Look, man, I don’t know if I can trust you and I don’t know if your movies are for profit. They’re really good, for social justice, but if you don’t understand me, somehow you don’t understand Kurt, and I don’t feel like you understand me,” explains the widow.

Gus Van Sant’s interest also did not disappear after Love’s refusal. A few years later, he directed the film “Last Days”, which tells the story of a musician, quite reminiscent of the frontman of “Nirvana”.

Cobain’s widow, however, claims she would like to see a Kurt biopic someday, but made by the right people.