Brad Pitt found something very familiar waiting for him when he first read Heart of the Beast. The story takes place far from city streets, dropping its characters into the wilderness, and that was territory Pitt already understood pretty well.
He grew up in the Ozarks and, by his own admission, has always been comfortable outside. So when the screenplay also managed to get an emotional reaction out of him, saying yes suddenly seemed pretty easy.
What Pitt had not completely thought through was what saying yes was actually going to require.
The wilderness helped pull Brad Pitt into the story
The Heart of the Beast movie puts Pitt in the role of James Belmont, a Special Forces officer stranded in the wilderness with his combat dog after a plane crash.
That made the outdoors much more than scenery. It became part of the entire experience.
For Pitt, though, the initial attraction was pretty simple. He likes being outside. He understood that world, and the story moved him enough that he wanted in.
Then reality arrived.
Making a survival movie meant military preparation, survival training, working closely with a dog and dealing with the physical demands that come with putting all of that together.
Pitt spoke about how he had more or less skipped over those details when deciding to make the film.
Click on the video to hear Brad Pitt talk about what attracted him to Heart of the Beast and the physical demands he initially overlooked.
David Ayer surrounded Pitt with experts
That is where director David Ayer came in.
As Pitt explained it, Ayer was not going to leave the important details to chance. If the movie involved military skills, they would have people who knew military skills. If survival was part of the story, they would have survival experts. And if Pitt was going to spend the movie working alongside a dog, the canine side needed the same attention.
Animal trainer Andrew Simpson was also part of that process, scouting New Zealand as the production searched for the environments it needed.
Suddenly, the Brad Pitt wilderness movie that sounded so naturally appealing involved a whole lot more preparation than simply heading outdoors.
Brad Pitt found more than he expected
In the end, Brad Pitt found that the thing that first attracted him to Heart of the Beast was also only the beginning of the experience.
He was comfortable in the wilderness. The script moved him. Those were the easy parts.
Everything required to make that world feel convincing on screen was another matter.
And that may be part of what made the project interesting in the first place. Pitt went into Heart of the Beast because something about it already felt familiar, then discovered just how much work it would take to actually live inside that story.
Heart of the Beast opens in theaters September 25.
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