10 Movie Mistakes Directors Refused To Fix Because The Acting Was Too Good
8. Brad Pitt's Gravity-Defying Tears - Ad Astra
The Mistake
Without going into spoilers, there's a scene near the end of James Gray's new sci-fi movie which takes protagonist Roy McBride (Brad Pitt) to a deeply emotional place.
McBride ends up crying while in zero-gravity, in an unscripted moment which came naturally to Pitt.
After shooting the take, Pitt informed Gray that the scene would need to be tweaked in post-production in order to have the tear drift away from McBride's cheek rather than roll down it, per the realities of crying in zero-gravity. Oops.
The Awesome Acting
Hilariously, despite his reputation for meticulousness, Gray wasn't so much interested in the intricacies of accurate science as he was creating a palpably human experience, and so denied Pitt's request to alter the scene with VFX.
In his own words, Gray told Pitt, "Sorry, I’m keeping it. The acting’s too good, buddy."
And he's absolutely right - given that a major aspect of the film's plot is McBride's cool-headedness and general lack of emotion, his crying is pivotal enough to be presented as-is rather than tinkered with in post, scientific accuracy be-damned.