Why Brad Pitt charged just $956 and cup of coffee for ‘Deadpool 2’ which collected $785.8M at box office
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Ryan Reynolds’ ‘Deadpool 2’ is among some of the most successful superhero movies that introduced Disney to the magical wonders of R-rated films. Helmed by David Leitch, the film released in May 2018 and collected more than $785.8M at the box office, with its lead star-studded cast taking home huge sums of money. However, there was one Hollywood heavyweight in the movie, who charged less than $1,000 and a cup of coffee for his role.
Brad Pitt is undoubtedly a Hollywood icon, who is known for charging an eye-watering amount for his movies but for ‘Deadpool 2’ cameo, he only asked for $956 and a cup of coffee from Reynolds’ hands. In the 'Deadpool' sequel, the 59-year-old star made a surprising blink-and-you-miss-it appearance as the meta-superhero's ally and X-Force member known as The Vanisher. Pitt was 'invisible' in the entire film, except for a split-second shot where he popped on screen just to die a few moments later.
'I want you to deliver it to me'
Speaking with CinemaBlend, Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, who helped write the film, previously talked about Pitt's surprisingly low compensation for ‘Deadpool 2’. "We shot in about half an hour. It was quite a production. It was like a full crew for half an hour, and Brad agreed to do it for scale, plus a cup of coffee. And then he was really specific about the coffee - said, 'I want this exact coffee from Starbucks, and, Ryan, I want you to deliver it to me,” Reese said, with Wernick adding "And Ryan did deliver it.”
Reese went on to claim that "We got the coffee, Ryan came in and gave it to him. It was hilarious because he had kind of forgotten that he asked for it. It was really funny. And then we shot it in about half an hour." Previously, Pitt himself spoke about the cameo and claimed that it was the easiest joke he ever did. “Pretty much, easiest thing I’ve ever done. Dave’s an old friend of mine and he used to be… he was my stunt double starting with Fight Club and all the way up till about 2004. And then he went off and became a really good director, which is rare. Rare,” he said in an interview, according to Fandom Wire.
‘Deadpool 3’ struck by major challenge
The long-awaited ‘Deadpool 3’ has begun filming with Reynolds and Hugh Jackman at the helm. A reunion between Reynolds' Deadpool and Jackman's Logan/Wolverine is set to be unveiled in the eagerly awaited third installment of the franchise, which introduces the mutant realm to the mainstream MCU. ‘Deadpool 3’ is currently in its early production stage but it has already landed in major turmoil. The Deadpool IP is inextricably linked to Reynolds and without his quick-witted jokes, the movie wouldn’t have been as successful.
Now, the audience is eagerly waiting to witness Reynolds’ quirk in the third installment but the writers’ strike has banned him from using his famous one-liners in the movie. As per the conditions laid by the Guild, Reynolds cannot add new lines to the script or improvise a scene endlessly while filming as long as the strike remains active. Any additional work on any script that is in development or production is prohibited due to the strike as long as the WGA is unable to come to a satisfactory agreement. The only remaining hope now is that Reynolds himself wrote a majority of 'Deadpool 3', and with so much material available, the movie could just succeed in living up to audiences' expectations even without the spur-of-the-moment ad libs and rewrites on set.