Brad Pitt: “I think the bong’s name was Russell.”

Brad Pitt on playing the stoner “Floyd” in True Romance, directed by Tony Scott:

I got involved with the film because I was having early discussions with Tony about playing a much bigger role in the film. To be honest, I really didn’t quite get it. In retrospect, the guy is a young guy’s wet dream. He gets the drugs, he gets the girl, he pulls off the heist, and off into the sunset. I didn’t get that at the time. I took it much too literally. All I could see was that on this romp, he gets his dad killed and they make no mention of it afterwards. It bothered me. I took it too literally. But also I had just finished “Kalifornia” and it felt like a similar vein, and so I didn’t think I was the right guy for it, but I liked Tony so much, I had such laughs with him, I wanted to do something in it. Reading through it, this one guy stuck out for me. He was a very small character but because he opened his mouth everyone else gets killed in the end. And I figured, if you’re gonna make a film that’s gonna go down this road, that’s kind of interesting to me. Because of his indiscretion, he gets everyone else in trouble. I talked to Tony, I said, “No, not for me, I’m not the guy, but I’d like to do this little guy.” Then, as it got close to shooting time, a couple of days before I was supposed to be on set I called Tony up and I asked him if I could make him a stoner. The idea behind making him a stoner is because he was always in one location and I figure, if he’s sitting in this same spot … well, he’s gotta be a stoner. I called Tony up and said, “Can we do this?” and he said, “Yeah”, and I said, “Can we keep him on the couch in every scene?” and he said, “Yeah”. And then when I got to set, there was the bong and the bong actually came from a climbing partner of Tony’s. I think the bong’s name was Russell. I’ve heard that they sell them in head shops now.

From the special edition of “True Romance”, selective commentaries special features.