Courtney Love Claims She Was Fired from Fight Club for Turning Down Brad Pitt's Kurt Cobain Pitch

Moviestore/Shutterstock, David M. Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Brad Pitt in Fight Club (1999); Courtney Love

Courtney Love says she was fired from the lead female role in Fight Club after rejecting Brad Pitt's pitch relating to her late husband, Kurt Cobain.

On Monday's WTF with Marc Maron podcast episode, the 58-year-old actress/singer claimed she was initially cast in the role of Marla Singer in 1999's Fight Club but was ousted because she "wouldn't let Brad play" Cobain in a separate film about the Nirvana frontman, who died by suicide in 1994 at age 27. Helena Bonham Carter ultimately played the role.

"I went nuclear," Love recalled of her reaction to Pitt's suggestion, saying that she told the actor, now 59, " 'Who the f--- do you think are?' "

Love said then-boyfriend Edward Norton, who co-led Fight Club with Pitt, broke the news to her that she would no longer be costarring with the two of them. "He starts sobbing. … And he was like, 'I don't have the power!' " she said.

A rep for Pitt declined to comment when reached by PEOPLE.

A source close to the film tells PEOPLE they believe Love "auditioned for a role in Fight Club, a role she was never offered at any point." The insider adds, "You cannot be fired for a job you didn't get. It's common knowledge that roles are not decided by other actors, but by the director." (Reps for Love and director David Fincher did not immediately respond to requests for comment.)

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20th Century Fox/Kobal/Shutterstock Helena Bonham Carter and Edward Norton in Fight Club (1999)

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Love said that more than two decades later, "I still kick myself for not having the shark instinct to be like, 'Sure,' and f--- 'em later," claiming Pitt has been pursuing a Cobain-related project since 1996.

Despite casting tensions, the Hole singer praised Bonham Carter, 56, calling her "a genius" but admitted of Fight Club itself, "I've never seen that film."

Love went on to say that she and Pitt spoke about the possibility of a Cobain project in 2020, when they had a Zoom call about Pitt's Plan B Entertainment potentially producing a biopic about the late grunge legend. But, as she claimed she told Pitt, " 'I don't know that I trust you and I don't know that your movies are for profit.' "

"They're really good social-justice movies, but … I was like, 'If you don't get me, you kind of don't get Kurt, and I don't feel like you do, Brad,' " Love said.

Lindsay Brice/Getty Images Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love in 1992

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Fight Club — both the film and the 1996 novel it's based on, by Chuck Palahniuk — has been widely discussed and debated over its themes and messages of anarchy and capitalism.

The initial negative reception to the film came as a surprise at the time to Pitt, who said in 2020 that he recalled seeing audience members "just slowly get up from their seats and no one is talking and they kind of disappear from the screening."

He added during his interview on the WTF with Marc Maron podcast, "I remember looking at Fincher and being like, 'Oh my God, what the f--- did we do? What happened?' I thought that s--- was great." He and Fincher also worked together on the movies Seven (1995) and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008).

Love reportedly told GQ back in 2011 about the idea of Pitt playing Cobain in a film, "Kurt had more presence and more beauty than Brad Pitt." Later, in 2014, she claimed casting was underway for a possible Cobain film and she was seeking "blond, gorgeous and the new Brad Pitts" for the part.