Mr. and Mrs. Smith Director Wanted Brad Pitt's Ex to Play His Wife Just to Make Them Mad On-Screen

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie's love story famously started on the set of Mr. and Mrs. Smith: they played a wife and a husband with some real sparks flying between them, and the characters' chemistry transformed into mutual feelings of the two actors.

This couple was keeping the entire world delighted for years until Jolie filed for divorce, and while it lasted, Brad and Angelina were largely considered the most beautiful celebrity couple on the planet.

All thanks to Mr. and Mrs. Smith — but few people know that the movie almost prevented their acquaintance, too.

Apparently, Doug Liman, the director of the movie, really wanted to cast Gwyneth Paltrow instead of Angelina Jolie — and he had very questionable reasoning, to put it mildly.

As Liman admitted, he knew that Pitt and Paltrow were still mad at each other and wanted to use that to build up massive tension on-screen.

"Fireworks could really fly <...> because I'm sure there's some s*** one of them was mad at the other one for. You find out what that baggage is and bring it out <...> with the camera rolling," said Doug to explain his thought process.

While a great idea in theory, it sounds a bit inhumane.

The movie could've become a straight-up psychological torture for the lead actors at the very least, and it's unlikely that the crew could work as paper normal with such high tension flowing on the set.

Luckily, Liman's producers convinced him to drop this plan. They claimed that it was "too mad scientist" and disrespectful towards Brad's feelings.

"My producers were like, 'Look, that's a great idea. But Brad is a human being. Even if he was game for it, it's wrong for us to put him in a situation where he's going to have to relive the demons of a relationship,'" recalls Liman.

Personal feelings aside, Mr. and Mrs. Smith's producers saved us the chance to see Pitt and Jolie's outstanding symbiosis and chemistry on the screen — and later, in real life.

If they weren't there to stop the director, the famous couple would've probably never gotten together in the first place.

Source: Entertainment Weekly