Director Ed Zwick passed on ‘Forrest Gump,’ ‘I didn’t get it’ — says Matthew Broderick’s mom dissed his writing as ‘limp’
Director Ed Zwick has been ruffling feathers in Hollywood with his new showbiz tell-all — and he continued to step on some toes in a recent chat about the book, even dishing on Matthew Broderick’s mom.
Zwick has told tales out of school in “Hits, Flops, and Other Illusions: My Fortysomething Years in Hollywood,” about actors including Tom Cruise, Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Denzel Washington, Julia Roberts and more.
When Zwick was interviewed by Janice Min of the Ankler in Los Angeles, he revealed some deets he left on the editing room floor.
Ed Zwick dishes on some of Hollywood’s top stars in his new book. Getty Images
The director recalled in a recent talk that he passed up directing “Forrest Gump.” ©Paramount/Courtesy Everett Collection
When Min mentioned a part of Zwick’s book in which Matthew Broderick’s mother told Zwick his writing on his 1989 Civil War film “Glory” was “limp as a penis” — we hear that Zwick jumped in and added, “Actually she said ‘limp as a pink penis.’ I thought I would be decorous about that and leave that part out.”
The director — who produced the Oscar-winning “Shakespeare in Love” and co-created TV’s “Thirtysomething” — also revealed that he mistakenly passed on another Oscar-winning classic, “Forrest Gump,” because… he didn’t get it.
“I remember passing on ‘Forrest Gump. I didn’t get it,” he said of the 1994 Tom Hanks movie. “I mean, Eric Roth [whose recent credits include ‘Dune’ and ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’] is such a good writer” — but, “I remember reading it early on and saying, ‘What? He’s there, and then he’s there, and where’s the, where’s the dramatic arc?’ I mean, I’ve made stupid mistakes like that.”
The director said that Matthew Broderick’s mom was not a fan of his script for “Glory.” ©TriStar Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection
Broderick’s mother thought the script was more than a bit “limp.” ©TriStar Pictures/Courtesy Evere
Zwick and Min’s chat went down in front of a crowd including “Erin Brockovich” producer Michael Shamberg at Zibby’s Bookshop — the Santa Monica store owned by Zibby Owens, the daughter of NYC billionaire Steve Schwarzman.
The store has been a celebrity fave with customers including Larry David Jennifer Garner and Reese Witherspoon.
As far as the future of the Hollywood studios, which are in disarray with Paramount for sale and Disney and Warner Bros. Discover facing financial woes, Zwick told Min: “I’m not optimistic. I mean, it’s not not gonna disappear. You just hope that it doesn’t become opera, like a sort of a privileged overpriced experience. You know, sort of just a nicety.”
In his book, Zwick has also spilled the tea on how Julia Roberts left 1998’s “Shakespeare in Love” before Gwyneth Paltrow took over the role.
Denzel Washington and Morgan Freeman jokingly get their revenge on Zwick. Getty Images for AFI
The duo also starred in “Glory.” ©TriStar Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection
He wrote in a recent essay for Air Mail that Roberts failed to have chemistry with any proposed male costars and that, “The problem wasn’t the script… It was Julia. From the moment she began to speak it was clear she hadn’t been working on the accent.”
He also writes how Harvey Weinstein threatened him over the film when they later had a dispute over the credits. Zwick reports that Weinstein — who is now of course incarcerated unrelatedly — once told him, “I’ll kill your whole family, you little f–k!”
Among other withering observations, Zwick recalls in his tome that Pitt, “seems easygoing at first, but he can be volatile when riled.”
“Forrest Gump” was a quirky hit without Zwick.
Zwick said that missing out on the movie was a mistake.
The two had epic fights on the set of “Legends of the Fall,” and Zwick revealed in his book of the actor, “I don’t know who yelled first, who swore, or who threw the first chair. Me, maybe? But when we looked up, the crew had disappeared.”
Though he praised Pitt as an actor and said it was all in service of the film.
A source familiar with Pitt previously told Page Six of Zwick, “he’s an a–hole,” and further alleged that on the same film, “Anthony Hopkins [who played Pitt’s dad] got so sick of [Zwick] that he just got in his car and drove to the airport one day.”
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During Zwick’s LA talk, we hear that former “SNL” star Amy Poehler was also spotted peeking inside the door during the event, and asking a staffer what was going on and why it was so packed.
With Zwick’s frank talk about actors, maybe she should’ve covered her ears.