In a post-Oscar, post-being accused of abuse world, Brad Pitt’s latest thing appears to be wacky little comedy cameos. His latest unexpected appearance is on the season finale of FX’s Dave, created by and starring Dave Burd a.k.a. Lil Dicky. Apparently, Burd heard “through the grapevine” that Pitt was a fan of the series and wrote what The Hollywood Reporter describes as a “passionate, personal letter” asking him to be part of it. Lo and behold, the answer was yes—marking Pitt’s first comedy TV role since Friends.
“It was a little reckless to anchor an entire three episode arc with Rachel McAdams and an entire finale on Brad Pitt, but for the themes that we’re talking about there is no one better,” Burd tells THR. “What better representation of like hopeless romanticism and love is there than Rachel McAdams, who was like my generation’s dream woman and who has been in films that have totally defined my interpretation of what love is supposed to be? Same with Brad Pitt. What better person to teach you a lesson about fame and validation than like the star of all stars, Brad Pitt?”
“These are like the biggest stars of our time validating our show,” Burd adds, noting that the finale’s other big guest star, Drake, told him that Dave “is one of the more important shows of our generation.” Burd attributes the quality of the show to the team behind it: “Everyone who makes the show loves cinema and storytelling. We’re at the top of our craft when these people are joining in and being like what you guys are doing is worth our talent and our time. For Brad to be getting direction from me and trusting me like the way I know he trusts like [Quentin] Tarantino and the Coen brothers was incredibly rewarding and something that I’ll never forget.”
This is the world we’re living in now, where Lil Dicky can compare himself to the brothers Coen. Still, Brad Pitt is not the point of Dave. “I don’t think the show is about celebrities, but they are a part of entering the zeitgeist and climbing the ranks of the entertainment industry,” Burd explains to the outlet. “That’s, like, the DNA of the show, and so I’ll just say that the people who came to play at the end of this season are the holy grail of iconicism. It’s like, where do you go from here?”