Brad Pitt is full of on-screen surprises.
Brad Pitt is full of on-screen surprises.
Aside from his impressive film catalog, the 56-year-old actor has proved to be a master at making unexpected cameos over the years. Pitt always manages to hit just the right note, whether he's lending his A-list talents to MTV shows or supporting his good friends.
Let's revisit Pitt's best cameos ever.
Saturday Night Live:
Pitt surprised fans as he made his first SNL appearance in over 20 years on the show's "At Home" special on April 25. The actor appeared as Dr. Anthony Fauci (the casting of Fauci's dreams) in the show's cold open to clarify some recent remarks made by President Donald Trump regarding the coronavirus.
Pitt went through a scripted address, but then dropped his impression, removing his white wig and glasses to share a message to "the real Dr. Fauci."
"Thank you for your calm and your clarity in this unnerving time," Pitt said, with genuine solemnity. "And thank you to the medical workers, first responders and their families, for being on the front line."
"And now, live (kind of) from all across America, it's Saturday night!" he added, kicking off the show.
Jackass:
Jackass ended its third and final season on MTV in 2002 with a bang, with an appearance by none other than Pitt. The actor participated in a prank that had him getting kidnapped by men in ski masks while in line at Pink's Hot Dogs in Los Angeles. Pitt got thrown into a van and screamed for help as onlookers watched, a few of them calling 911.
"Brad Pitt was in line and he was just kidnapped and throw into a van," one man tells the police. "I'm really not kidding."
Jackass host Johnny Knoxville talked about the memorable cameo in a 2006 interview with MTV News, and said it was actually Pitt who approached him about appearing on the show.
"He was saying he really wanted to do something with us," Knoxville said. "We were filming the last episode. At the time, we didn't even have any ideas -- just that he wanted to be on the show."
In 2018, Knoxville appeared on Hot Wings and was again asked about his experience with Pitt, which included rolling around in monkey costumes together.
"Well, yeah, he showed up ready," Knoxville recalled. "We were in these go-karts bombing the hill on Vine, and we were all like 'Oh, we really don't want him to get hurt because he's Brad Pitt.' But he did not care. He was ready to do it. He was the first one in the middle of the street, and we were like 'No, no no!', but he didn't care."
Friends:
Friends had a lot of major celeb cameos throughout its 10-year run, but perhaps none were more memorable than Pitt's. In the show's 2001 Thanksgiving episode, Pitt played Will Colbert, who still has a grudge against Rachel (played by his wife at the time, Jennifer Aniston) after she bullied him about his weight while they were in high school together. Rachel then gets upset when she finds out that Will was a founding member of the "I Hate Rachel Green" Club alongside Ross (David Schwimmer).
Titled "The One With the Rumor," Rachel gets even more upset when she finds out the two spread a rumor that she was a hermaphrodite during high school.
In September, Pitt recalled that it wasn't all smooth sailing while filming the episode despite already being a major movie star at the time.
"I flubbed my first line," he admitted to USA Today. "My very first line I flubbed, and we had to go back."
These days, it's clear Pitt still has a lot of love for the iconic sitcom, even after his split from Aniston in 2005. ET spoke with him at the 2020 Golden Globes in January, when he talked about crossing paths with his ex-wife at the awards show and made a Friends joke.
"I'll run into Jen, she's a good friend. Yeah," Pitt said when told the whole world wants a photo of the two of them. "The second most important reunion of her year? I understand. That was a play on Friends. They were saying that."
Deadpool 2:
Pitt took everyone by surprise when he appeared in 2018's Deadpool 2, when Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) assembles a newly formed group called X-Force. He recruits The Vanisher, a mutant whose gag is that you never see him throughout his time onscreen. But when he parachutes into a mission and gets electrocuted to death, for one split second, we finally see his face -- revealing none other than Pitt.
ET spoke with Reynolds at the Los Angeles premiere of the film about the incredible get, and Reynolds said he didn't have to do too much to get Pitt to make the cameo.
"The power of just asking," Reynolds told ET. "Just ask, you never know!"
Of course, director David Leitch also has history with Pitt, acting as his stunt double on such films as Fight Club and Mr. & Mrs. Smith.
"It was definitely a surreal moment because I had worked with him in the past," Leitch said. "I never thought I'd be directing him. He's a mentor and a friend and I love him, so it was great."
ET later spoke with Reynolds and Deadpool 2 co-writer Rhett Reese at Comic-Con, where they again spoke about the spectacular cameo.
"Brad Pitt said he'd do it if Ryan personally delivered a cup of coffee from Starbucks, right?" Reese asked.
"Sort of embellished," Reynolds responded. "I was told all he wants is a cup of coffee and I said, 'Like a franchise or just one individual cup of coffee?' And I was told one individual cup of coffee, which was really his way of saying, 'I'm doing it for nothing.' And it was a total solid and the nicest thing anyone could do."
"I just loved it, because what's more irresponsible than taking one of the biggest movie stars in the world and giving him a role that is utterly wordless and invisible with an exception of three frames of film?" Reynolds continued. "Yeah, that's kind of amazing."
The Jim Jefferies Show:
Pitt first made a surprise appearance on Comedy Central's The Jim Jefferies Show as a depressing weatherman in June 2017. Pitt, wearing an all-tan outfit and a printed tie, stood in front of a map of the world and explained climate change.
"Things are going to be getting warmer in this area here, and this area here," he said while pointing to the entire map.
"Do you have any future forecasts for us?" host Jim Jefferies asked, to which Pitt replied, "There is no future."
In a later appearance, Pitt continued his morbid forecasts with a broad smile.
"Carbon dioxide is slowing turning our planet into an uninhabitable wasteland, and half the population don't believe it," he said.
Jefferies later revealed that Pitt filmed his multiple appearances all at once and the show slowly rolled them out. Jefferies also appeared on Conan and said it was Pitt who approached him to make a cameo on his show. The comedian gushed that the superstar was even more charming in person.
"I have a huge crush on Brad," he said. "He's just so wonderful. He's even more handsome in person when you meet him."
Confessions of a Dangerous Mind:
In one of his more subtle but amazing cameos, Pitt appeared in 2002's Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, directed by his good friend, George Clooney. Clooney's directorial debut was about the fictional life of game show host Chuck Barris, who claimed to have also been an assassin for the CIA.
Clooney actually enlisted two of his Ocean's Eleven co-stars, Pitt and Matt Damon, to appear as contestants in a Blind Date-type show. The woman hilariously ends up picking the average Joe in the scenario in the A-list gag.
John Krasinski's Some Good News:
Pitt once again appeared as a weatherman on Sunday's episode of Krasinski's Some Good News internet show, which has been highlighting positive news amid the coronavirus pandemic. The actor made an appearance halfway through the episode after Krasinski randomly cut to him.
"I'm going to need a second to catch my breath. We should do a check on the weather," Krasinski said. "Brad, how's it looking out there?"
The video then cut to a balcony as Pitt briefly peeked outside and looked up.
"Looks, ahhh, pretty good, yeah," he noted before the video cut back to Krasinski.
Pitt also delighted his fans earlier this month when he appeared on the new HGTV show Celebrity IOU. He teamed up with the Property Brothers to surprise his longtime makeup artist, Jean Ann Black -- a friend and co-worker for nearly 30 years and over 40 movies -- with a life-changing home renovation. Watch the video below for more:
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