By Chris Snellgrove | Published
Although they are both highly regarded actors, Brad Pitt and Eric Bana have not spent much screen time together. A notable exception is the 2004 sword-and-sandals epic Troywhich depicted a brutal conflict between the Greek and Trojan armies. To make it as real as possible, Brad Pitt and Eric Bana made a bet with each other.
Although the movie (especially the director's cut) has a lot of big fight scenes, a lot of the violence in this movie is very intimate. A great example of this is when Pitt and Bana's characters have an on-screen duel that recreates one of the most entertaining feuds in scripted history. A cinematic clash of the main characters that happens well before Bana shows up Star Trek (2009) and Pitt appeared (blink, and you'll miss him!) Deadpool 2.
That on-screen duel is arguably the best part of the film, and one that fans still remember fondly twenty years later. Pitt and Bana do miss you, but not for the reasons you might think.
Instead of using stunt doubles, the two fight on their own, and make things fun with a bet: if one person accidentally hits the other, they'll pay $50 for small hits and $100 for big hits. When it ended, one star paid several hundred dollars, and the other paid less!
To Duel or Not to Duel: No Try
In context, Eric Bana plays Hector, the prince of Troy, and Brad Pitt plays Achilles, the mighty Greek hero. During the Greeks' long attack on the Trojans, Hector ends up killing Patroclus, Achilles' beloved cousin.
A furious Achilles challenges Hector to a duel outside the city, and they engage in a grueling battle that lasts nearly three minutes of intense, nail-biting time. In the end, Achilles wins, dragging Hector's body to his camp as a kind of painful trophy of his victory.
Eruc Bana And Brad Pitt Pay Each Other Hits
It goes into this Troy fight scene, Bana and Pitt make a bold decision to do all the adventures themselves. This made it easier for director Wolfgang Petersen to liven up this big conflict, but it also made it much easier for the two actors to accidentally hurt each other.
To make things interesting, Bana and Pitt made a gentleman's bet about the wrong hits: every time someone got a small tap, they paid another $50. For each big hit, they will pay $100. When all was said and done, Pitt was the real loser here. His character may have been successful on screen, but the actor had to shell out $750 for repeatedly hitting Bana.
However, what about Bana? Some versions of this legend say that he paid nothing at all. But when news of the bet was first reported, the Chicago Tribune said he paid Pitt $200 for his errant hits.
That said, he came out more than a half-dozen ahead of his costar by showing a bit of self-control. There's an irony there, of course: previously, Bana's biggest role was as the lead actor in Ang Lee's. Hulkso everyone there was probably too worried about making him angry.
After all, you wouldn't love him when he was angry!
