Brad Pitt was stoned after the disastrous premiere of Fight Club

While there is general agreement today that Fight Club is one of the best made films of the last 25 years, but as it turns out, it got off to a very unfortunate start when it premiered at the Venice Film Festival.

Brad Pitt, who played Tyler Durden alongside Ed Norton in the cult classic, recently admitted this himself in an interview with Marc Maron on his WTF podcast.

But instead of being ashamed that the Italian audience simply did not connect with him or did not understand the humor, Fight ClubPitt admits that he and Norton were so stoned that they giggled throughout the entire disastrous performance.

Read more: Edward Norton says Fight Club gave him the confidence that his film could find an audience

“It was the Venice Film Festival and it was a midnight screening,” Pitt recalled during the interview, which he conducted with his Once upon a time in Hollywood Co-star Leonardo DiCaprio.

“For some reason we thought it would be a good idea to smoke a joint beforehand. They put you on a balcony next to the festival director, it’s very formal. The film starts. The first joke comes and there are crickets. There’s dead silence.”

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“One more joke, and it’s just dead silent. You know there are subtitles, and this thing just doesn’t translate at all.

The more this happened, the funnier it became for Edward and me. So we just started laughing. We’re the assholes in the back laughing at our own jokes. The only ones laughing.”

While Fight Club The film grossed over $100 million at the box office and received mostly positive reviews. Its reputation has only improved over the years, with many citing it as one of director David Fincher’s best films and arguably Pitt’s most iconic performance.