Geena Davis is coming clean about her steamy love scene with Brad Pitt in 1991’s Thelma & Louise, and apparently, the experience looks much sexier on screen than it was behind the scenes for several reasons. In the 66-year-old actress’ new memoir, Dying of Politeness, which came out Tuesday, she revealed the 58-year-old actor was worried about a tiny pimple on his butt being exposed while filming. “Brad, for his part, couldn’t have cared less about all the fuss over his looks,” she wrote after recalling the movie’s director, Ridley Scott, making sure Brad was lit to perfection for the scene. “He was just embarrassed about a tiny little pimple on his butt that the makeup gal recovered after each take.”
Meanwhile, the whole scene was a bit uncomfortable for Geena — so much so that she was originally going to use a body double to replace her for the love-making session! “I was uncomfortable with the projected extent of skin I was being asked to show — unlike in Tootsie, there wasn’t going to be any underwear — so Ridley Scott found himself interviewing a slew of body doubles who were more used to flashing the flesh than I was,” the Beetlejuice alum explained. “A line of them snaked through the lot where we were filming, right past my trailer door, and I couldn’t stand it any longer — I’d worked as a model, after all — so I told Ridley I’d do it.”
Geena also revealed that there were four men up for the part of sweet-talking JD in addition to Brad: George Clooney, Mark Ruffalo, and Grant Show. She then recalled running into George several years later on a plane and not remembering that he had ever screen-tested with her for the part. “We chatted for quite a while, until suddenly he said, ‘You know what, I hate that Brad Pitt.’ I laughed and said, ‘No, you don’t. Isn’t he, like, your best friend?’ ‘No, no, I hate him,’ George said,” the actress penned. George replied he was mad at Brad for taking the role of JD, to which Geena asked if he wanted the part. “Well, yes — couldn’t you tell when I auditioned with you?” George innocently asked.
“Ah, no, I could not tell. I didn’t recognize any of the guys at the auditions, though all had been working on various shows and movies,” Geena wrote. “I didn’t think, ‘Hey, look, it’s George Clooney!’ when George walked into the room. … Back on the plane, I could have laughed and said, ‘Oh my God, were you one of the guys with brown hair? I don’t remember you at all!’ but I didn’t, even though I’m sure he would have cracked up at that. Nope, too polite still. Instead, I said, ‘Oh yes, I could tell. You were so great.'” Oops!
Geena previously opened up about her screen test with Brad in 2014 and admitted she fumbled a few of her lines with him. “I actually read with him first — there were five candidates for the role. And then he came in — this is so embarrassing — but I got a little distracted during the scene, you know?” she recalled to The Hollywood Reporter. “I was forgetting my lines. I was like, ‘I’m totally screwing up this kid’s audition.'”
However, everything worked out beautifully, and when the iconic actor won his first-ever Oscar in 2020 for his supporting role in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood , he sweetly thanked Geena in his acceptance speech. Remembering auditions again with Brad for the hit film in an interview with People, the A League actress noted, “He just has ‘it.’ I could tell when he was auditioning that he was super talented.” Addressing his first-ever Oscar win, she added, “He has done so many incredible things over the years. I don’t think that it is unusual for him to be honored. He really is the ‘star’ of the moment, which is fabulous, and it is just great to see.”