Your average actor auditions for tons of jobs before they come anywhere close to becoming a recognizable face, much less someone who would be considered famous. Well, it turns out that Brad Pitt, of all people, auditioned for Cheers during the early part of his career, and it sounds like there's a good reason we don't remember him ever being on that show. Emmy-winning casting director Jeff Greenberg, who's worked on Modern Family, Ugly Betty, Frasier and Wings among many other shows, has recounted the time he saw a young Pitt for a role on NBC's massive hit, Cheers. Here's what he had to say about that audition:
My only note was 'Not funny.' For the part, he wasn't funny---he's been funny since.
Well, that sums up what happened with Brad Pitt's Cheers audition nicely, doesn't it? I take it that if you're going to try to get a part on one of the most popular television comedies of all time, you best bring your A game to that audition and be super damn funny. Unfortunately for young Brad Pitt, he couldn't quite bring the funny when he tried out for Cheers back in the day. And, from what Jeff Greenberg tells Entertainment Weekly, Pitt wasn't able to be funny even a little bit.
It was nice of Greenberg to add that he feels like Brad Pitt has, though, in fact been funny on screen since his failed Cheers audition. While Pitt is, by no means, considered a comedic actor at this point, he has been in a few movies that are lighter in tone than his usual fare, and he's managed to elicit some laughs in films like Snatch, the Ocean's Eleven franchise and (in what is probably his looniest role to date) Burn After Reading. I wouldn't be surprised, especially by this point in his long career, if Pitt fully understands that comedy is mostly not where his talents reside, leading him to take roles that are a bit lighter than usual for him, but still don't require comedic powerhouse performances.
So, we never got to see Brad Pitt on Cheers, but things certainly turned out OK for him, didn't they? Pitt can next be seen in War Machine, a film that's been described as an "absurdist war story" and looks ripe to bring some laughs when it hits Netflix on May 26, even if those laughs don't come from Pitt himself. To see what else you can catch on the small screen in the coming weeks, be sure to check out our summer premiere schedule and Netflix premiere guide.
