20 Things You Didn't Know About Fight Club
14. They Tried To Make Marla’s Scenes Less Crude .
Who was Laura Ziskin? The head of Fox 2000, their attempt at a Miramax-style stable of low-budget, high-powered movies, Ziskin had a reputation for bringing together talent by the time she brought Fight Club into development, and this movie was no different.
However, she balked at a number of the projects more challenging aspects - specifically, Tyler’s toxic relationship with Marla.
The original line Marla utters after a bout of ‘sport-f*cking’ was supposed to be "I want to have your abortion," but Ziskin declared that to be far too offensive. Fincher agreed to change the line provided that he would not be required to amend it a second time - but of course, the replacement was "I haven't been f*cked like that since grade school", which is so much worse. Caught by her promise to the director, Ziskin’s hands were tied: the new line stayed in.
Interestingly, Bonham Carter herself didn’t properly understand that line when she delivered it: in England, there’s no such thing as ‘grade school’. It was only much later that she twigged that her character was talking about primary school, and a pre-teen upper age range.
Ziskin also flailed when she saw the yellow rubber gloves an otherwise naked Tyler is wearing when Jack interrupts the two of them. They’d been Pitt’s idea, a last minute addition that wasn’t in the script, but Ziskin was appalled at the crude implication. However, she let it slide after the gloves got a big laugh in a test screening.