Daily Times

Brad Pitt recently gave us a taste of his fighting skills when he came toe-to-toe with Bruce Lee (not the real one, obviously) in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

But if his career had gone a little differently, we could have seen him slapping around Hugo Weaving with some newly-learnt martial arts.

Yes, before Keanu Reeves was offered the part of Neo in The Matrix, the role was first put forward to Pitt, but he decided to turn it down.

This isn’t actually a new revelation, as The Matrix producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura revealed last year that Pitt was one of several options they considered for the part – Will Smith, Leonardo DiCaprio and even Sandra Bullock in a gender-flipped role – but this is the first time Pitt has commented on the casting.

During a talk at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, where he received the Maltin Modern Master Award, the actor said: “I’ll give you one, only one, because I really believe it was never mine.

“It’s not mine. It’s someone else’s and they go and make it. I really do believe in that. I really do. But I did pass on The Matrix. I took the red pill.”

Oh well, perhaps if you start walking into a wall and scream about biscuits for several hours, you’ll make the whole system glitch and gain access to the file where he did actually take the role.