Brad Pitt reportedly based his Snatch performance off a character from 1990s British sitcom Father Ted.
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The Bullet Train star sat down with JOE back in 2019 alongside his Once Upon A Time In Hollywood co-star Margot Robbie, where he discussed taking on different accents in roles.
Firstly discussing his Irish accent in The Devil’s Own, Pitt talked about playing a Northern Irish IRA member living in Belfast, saying: “That was probably more extreme.”
He added: “But there is a real music to Northern Ireland that I click into, that I kind of adored.”
Pitt then brought up his performance in Guy Ritchie’s 2000 crime comedy Snatch, in which he played an Irish Traveller named Mickey.
Speaking on the role, Pitt said: “And I’m told my ‘Pikey’ – do we still use that word? – accent was pretty good.”
He then explained: “Which is amazing, because I was going off a performance of a guest star on a Father Ted episode,” to which the interviewer and Robbie both responded: “Really?”
Pitt explained: “Yes. And then a friend of mine, who said ‘I never can understand what they’re saying’. So somehow I landed in the right spot, on a Hail Mary.”
Irish actor and comedian Pat Shortt, who played Tom in Father Ted, has recently responded to the comment, saying that he was “flattered” that about his character possibly being the inspiration behind Pitt’s performance.
“I’ve heard that story. Well it makes sense. I know the reason, do you?” Shortt told the Irish Mirror (via Dublin Live).
“He was going out with Jennifer Aniston at the time. She was in LA and he was supposed to be in London but he was spending more time with her and he had an Irish voice coach who sent him on the tapes to do a bit of research.”
He continued, explaining how the character in question might have been Jon Kenny’s Fred Rickwood: “And that is how it happened. Nobody knows – was it me or Jon Kenny? Nobody knows.”
In other news, Angelina Jolie’s lawyers have called Pitt’s attempt to obtain her NDAs “abusive”.