The Lost City follows adventure-romance writer Loretta Sage (Bullock) as she is kidnapped by a billionaire (Radcliffe) who wishes to find the real lost city upon which her latest book is based. At the same time, the model for her book covers (Tatum) decides to prove himself to be the real deal by saving Loretta.
Pitt is cast as Jack Trainer, the dashing ex-military who is enlisted to save Bullock’s romance writer character Lorretta after she’s kidnapped.
ET’s Rachel Smith spoke with Sandra Bullock at a special screening of the film in New York City on Monday, where she shared how Brad Pitt‘s part in the film came to be.
According to Bullock, Brad’s cameo in the movie came about thanks to him sharing a mutual hairstylist with Bullock. The stylist, Janine Thompson, convinced Bullock to join Pitt in the forthcoming film Bullet Train in exchange for him joining Bullock in The Lost City. The action and stunt-heavy cameo was shot over just four days, but Bullock and Tatum both agree he stole the show. “And we let him. He just came in, and he tore it up. He’s really funny,” she says of Pitt. Adds Tatum, “He came in and played a certain character that fits into this weird world, and just signed up for it completely and wholly. I’ve met him, but to get to work with him was a whole different thing. I couldn’t focus. It was really an out-of-body experience in a lot of ways.”
“I honestly don’t know Brad that well, we just keep doing each other favors. And we don’t really know each other,” Bullock said of Pitt, who plays a CIA operative in the film.
“We just keep– I think we were probably past life friends or something,” she went on to say of their work partnership turned friendship. “I just, for some reason, he asks for help, I show up. I ask for help, he shows up. Maybe [a] mutual respect club, I don’t know.”
The “Lost City” directors Adam and Aaron Nee had a hard time believing he’d actually show up for filming.
“Right out of the gate we were like, ‘No way we’re going to get Brad Pitt to be in this movie,’ so we talked about a lot of people,” Adam told TooFab ahead of the film’s release, when asked if anyone else was considered for the small role of Jack Trainer, Bullock’s would-be rescuer in the film.
“Then when it started to become real, we were on set — he started shooting like week three — the day before we’re not believing he’s going to be there,” Adam continued. “There’s no way Brad Pitt is in this movie. And then he showed up, he was so game and we blew up cars behind him on Day 1 to initiate him.”
Pitt’s scene was actually a pretty tricky one to film, thanks to the explosive stunt work involved, explained Aaron.
“For Brad’s first day, we have him and Channing pushing Sandra Bullock in a wheelbarrow with two cars exploding behind them,” he recalled. “We got one shot at it, the sun is going down, we knew that if we get this shot, everybody will go, ‘Great shot’ and if we don’t, our career is over.” Thankfully, they nailed it.
