Brad Pitt reveals how he prevented Seven's classic ending from being changed

Virgin Radio

19 Aug 2024, 10:25

It’s one of the most iconic endings in cinema history, but the conclusion to Seven could have been very different had Brad Pitt not intervened.

The ending of David Fincher’s 1995 classic crime thriller sees (massive spoiler alert incoming if you haven’t seen Seven), Pitt’s Detective Mills receive a mysterious box from a serial killer John Doe, played by Kevin Spacey.

And what was in the box? Only the severed head of Mills’ wife Tracy, played by Gwyneth Paltrow.

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As Mills reacts to the horrific discovery, Morgan Freeman‘s Detective Lieutenant Somerset tries to persuade him not to shoot John Doe, as this would be the seventh death in the murderer's seven deadly sins plan. "If you kill him, he will win," he says.

However, Mills does indeed take revenge, and kills Doe.  

Speaking in an interview with GQ interview, Pitt has recounted how he made sure that the studio didn’t mess with Seven’s ending. 

Talking with his Wolfs co-star George Clooney, the Hollywood star said: “Having had a bad experience on a movie before where they edited out scenes I thought were vital, in Seven I put it in my contract: The wife’s head stays in the box.”

Clooney asked: “I bet they tried to take it out, didn’t they?” to which Pitt replied: “Absolutely. And the character kills John Doe. I got both in my contract.”

He added: “So sure enough, when it comes time [to film the scene], they come and they go, ‘You know, he’d be much more heroic if he didn’t [kill John Doe].’ And you go, ‘Yeah, he would. But he’s not.’ And then: ‘It’s too much with the wife. What if we put the dogs’ heads in? It should be the dogs’ heads.’ Nope.”

When Aussie star Rebel Wilson joined The Chris Evans Breakfast Show earlier this year, she recalled the “surreal moment of hanging out with Pitt” at the Academy Awards ceremony in 2020. She told Chris Evans: “Brad Pitt literally wins his Oscar for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, gets off stage, feels a little bit overwhelmed, because normally they then go into a press room and answer questions. He doesn't feel like doing that, so he feels like having a chat with me, who's there because I have to get dressed into a cat for a little joke, we were just talking about our hit movie, Cats!” 

“And so we had to go backstage. And then I just kind of intersect with Brad and he kind of holds on to me, and just wants to just chill for a bit. And I'm like, ‘Yeah, sure.’ And then Timothée Chalamet comes up and says, ‘Thank you for letting me have a shower at your house’!”

Rebel said: “When I'm 12, 13, starting high school, I literally have no friends, I am the biggest loser. And then to just have these surreal moments like that at the Oscars!”

She added: “Then Brad escorts me like a real Southern gentleman to my dressing room to get transformed into a cat!”