Jordana Brewster Revisits That Failed 'Mr. and Mrs. Smith' Pilot and Why It Was the Push She Needed
https://collider.com/jordana-brewster-mr-and-mrs-smith-pilot-failure/
Soon after Mr. and Mrs. Smith the movie starring Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie crushed it at the box office in 2005, ABC gave the go-ahead for a TV pilot with Brewster and Martin Henderson playing the title characters. Director Doug Liman and writer Simon Kinberg stuck with the property to craft a pilot that picks up after the events of the film, with Jane and John Smith’s relationship being put to the test yet again. The pilot was produced but ultimately, ABC took a pass on picking up the series.share
It was a TV show following in the footsteps of a hit film with Liman and Kinberg attached; how does one deal with the disappointment of that not panning out when all the stars seemed to align? Here’s how Brewster put it on Collider Ladies Night:
“I don’t think it’s ever a matter of brushing it off and moving on to the next pilot. The only thing that helped me be more sane in the industry was going to school because then I had something that kept me super, super busy and super focused and it was like they complimented each other perfectly. But it not getting picked up crushed me because it was like, we had all the elements.”
Brewster went into further detail admitting that she was in a different phase of her career, at a point when she needed a bit of a reality check when it came to recognizing what she needed to do in order to deliver her best possible work.
“We had all the elements for success and yet ABC didn’t pick it up. And I think it was the tone that was wrong. I think also I was in a phase of my career where - I now go to class every week, I now have an acting coach that I will defer to for everything. I will work on something endlessly. I think back then, I was probably like 24, 25 so I was like, ‘I have this whole thing figured out.’ Actually I think that was an important road bump because it taught me, ‘Girl, you’ve gotta get to work. You don’t have it all figured out.’ And so it was a nice kick in the ass I think, ultimately.”