Jeff Buckley’s mother, Mary Guibert, has revealed in a new documentary why she turned down Brad Pitt’s offer to play the late musician.
READ MORE: ‘Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, A Journey, A Song’ review: dissecting pop’s most-beloved ballad
It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley, which Pitt executive produced, premieres at Sundance on January 24. In it, Guibert recalls that in 2000, the Fight Club star invited her to lunch at his home, and even to his wedding to Jennifer Aniston, in attempts to convince her he was right for the role.
“If there’s 20 people calling you, and Brad Pitt is one of them, who are you gonna pick to go see?” she asks with a laugh. However, she eventually became sceptical of how Pitt would transform himself into the singer, due to the actor having very different features to her son.
She recalls asking: “We’re going to dye your hair, put brown contact lenses on those baby blues, and you’re going to open your mouth and Jeff’s voice is going to come out?” The project eventually fell through, although films have been made about the singer since then.
Alongside a handful of documentaries, the 2012 drama Greetings From Tim Buckley starred Penn Badgley (TV You) as Jeff Buckley in the story of the musician preparing for his first public performance. It was made with his estate’s permission but not their involvement.
Jeff Buckley CREDIT: Mick Hutson/Redferns
Best known for his cover of Leonard Cohen’s ‘Hallelujah’, Buckley died in a swimming accident in 1997, aged 30. His death was ruled as an accident, with his autopsy showing no signs of drugs or alcohol in his system.
Recently, the singer’s Memphis home has been converted into a “tribute” Airbnb, with the real estate agent saying the home is intended to be “in homage to him, but not like a hipster’s Graceland”.
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