Brad Pitt Believes His Performance In This 80% RT Movie Had One Major Flaw

Published Sep 10, 2026, 12:07 AM EDT

Michael John Petty is a Senior Author for Collider who spends his days writing, in fellowship with his local church, and enjoying each new day with his wife and daughters. At Collider, he writes features, reviews, recaps, and conducts interviews. In addition to writing about stories, Michael has told a few of his own. His novella, The Beast of Bear-tooth Mountain,** **was released in 2023. His Western short story, The Devil’s Left Hand, received the Spur Award for “Best Western Short Fiction” from the Western Writers of America in 2025. Michael currently resides in North Idaho with his growing family.

Sometimes, actors are their own worst critics. Even if they’ve won Academy Awards, there are plenty of Hollywood stars who critique themselves as harshly (if not more harshly) than their own critics. Brad Pitt is no stranger to this mentality either, though you may be surprised by which of his performances he despises. Before he returns to theaters this fall with the upcoming Heart of the Beast, you ought to revisit his memorable performance in A River Runs Through It — the famed Robert Redford picture he thought he did poorly in.

It’s been over 30 years since Redford made A River Runs Through It, an American period drama based on the memoir of the same name by Norman Maclean. But despite all the praise and attention at the Oscars that the film garnered, Pitt struggled with his performance as the troubled Montana reporter Paul Maclean. Back in 2011, the star spoke with Entertainment Weekly* *about his career highlights at the time, noting that, despite Redford’s best directorial efforts, he didn’t believe that he was ultimately “skilled” enough for the role.

“I think I could have done better. Maybe it was the pressure of the part, and playing someone who was a real person — and the family was around occasionally — and not wanting to let Redford down.”

While Pitt also admitted that it had been a long time since he’d seen the film, his feelings remained the same after nearly 20 years. Of course, anyone who has had the pleasure of enjoying this visual memoir of a bygone era of the American West will gladly note that Pitt is fantastic on the screen. More than that, he’s easily one of its defining features; indeed, Pitt truly makes the movie. Sure, Craig Sheffer is fantastic as Norman, and Tom Skerritt’s performance as the Reverend Maclean is quite profound, but the youthful energy Pitt brings to the role of Paul was undoubtedly a career-making performance. Pitt’s carefree younger Maclean boy — who is somehow as charismatic as he is emotionally reserved — understandably earned the high praise of critics everywhere.

Although Pitt would revisit the world of early 20th century Montana later in the romantic drama Legends of the Fall (which, ironically, saw him playing a fairly similar character who was also a bootlegger during the Prohibition), the truth of the matter is that A River Runs Through It is an excellent picture that is only made better by Pitt being in it. In fact, one might even argue that it’s because of Pitt that the entire thing lands. The stark contrast between Paul and his older brother Norman only works because of Pitt’s on-screen charisma, and the two often stand antithetical to one another as brothers often do. Some may consider it one of Pitt’s most underrated features, but perhaps the best way to describe it is underappreciated.

window.arrayOfGalleries[“article-gallery-1-1056114192”] = ’“<div class=“w-gallery-carousel”><section id=“main-carousel-1-1056114192” class=“splide splide-gallery” data-gallery-expanded-id=“main-expanable-carousel-1-1056114192” data-gallery-expanded-thumbnail-id=“expanded-gallery-thumbnails-1-1056114192”><button class=“expand icon i-expand” type=“button”></button><div class=“splide__track”><ul class=“splide__list” style=“—gallery-aspect-sm: 2 / 1; —gallery-aspect-md: 2 / 1; —gallery-aspect-lg: 2 / 1;” ><li class=“splide__slide gallery-main-img”>