Brad Pitt Saved David Fincher’s SE7EN

What’s your favorite David Fincher movie? My favorite would have to be SE7EN for all the obvious reasons. It was a very dark, very edgy crime thriller, it left quite an impression on the younger me. As some of you may know, SPOILER ALERT! the twist ending had Pitt’s character shoot and kill John Doe who held a box containing the head of Pitt’s character’s pregnant wife. Well, that scene almost got replaced in the film.
PItt told EW that the studio had a different ending scene in mind but Pitt insisted that he wouldn’t do the film if the ending was any different..

With Se7en, I said, “I will do it on one condition — the head stays in the box. Put in the contract that the head stays in the box.” Actually, there was a second thing, too: “He’s got to shoot the killer in the end. He doesn’t do the ‘right’ thing, he does the thing of passion.” Those two things are in the contract. Cut to: Se7en has been put together, and they’ve tested it. They go, “You know, he would be much more heroic if he didn’t shoot John Doe — and it’s too unsettling with the head in the box. We think maybe if it was the dog’s head in the box…”

Man, that would’ve been silly if it had been Pitt’s dog’s head that was in the box. It would’ve turned into something that’s unintentionally laughable in an instant, it would’ve ruined everything that led up to that moment.