Courtney Love Stands by Claim Brad Pitt Had Her Fired from Fight Club After Source Denies She Was Cast

Michael Loccisano/Getty; Amy Sussman/Getty Courtney Love; Brad PItt

Courtney Love is doubling down on her claim that Brad Pitt had her fired from Fight Club, as a source denied she was ever cast in the first place.

In a lengthy statement posted on Instagram Friday, the actress/singer addressed comments she made on the WTF with Marc Maron podcast earlier this week, in which she said she was fired from the lead female role in the 1999 film after rejecting Pitt's separate pitch about making a biopic about her late husband Kurt Cobain.

A source close to the film told PEOPLE on Thursday that they believe Love "auditioned for a role in Fight Club, a role she was never offered at any point."

The insider added, "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."

Love, 58, said in her statement that the story she recounted on the podcast — involving an alleged phone call to her from Pitt, now 59, and director Gus Van Sant about a potential Cobain-focused project — was initially one she "was never going to tell" but Pitt "pushed me a bridge too far."

"I don't like the way he does business or wields his power. It's a simple fact, and it started during the production of Fight Club," she went on.

Reps for Pitt, Van Sant, 70, and Fight Club director David Fincher did not immediately respond to PEOPLE's requests for comment Friday.

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human-interest stories.

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

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

Love continued her Friday statement by insisting she is "not here 22 years later bitching about losing a part playing someone's side piece in a movie," as she "understand(s) how much of a game of roulette casting is."

Love claimed she was originally offered the part of Marla Singer, which eventually went to Helena Bonham Carter. The film also starred Pitt, as well as Love's then-boyfriend Edward Norton.

About Pitt bringing the Cobain idea to her at that time, Love recalled, "I lost my s--- on them, and by 7 p.m. I was fired from Fight Club." The Hole singer added, "Every word of this is factual. This was always a secret that I was fine keeping."

"It's a movie. Indeed, I passed on better roles [than] that. Who cares?" Love continued, claiming that Pitt was still persistent about a Cobain project for years to come.

Love said on the podcast she met with Pitt over Zoom in 2020 to discuss his production company, Plan B Entertainment, producing a potential Cobain biopic. (The Nirvana frontman died by suicide in 1994 at age 27. He and Love share one child: daughter Frances Bean Cobain, 30.)

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

While Love did not mention Van Sant as being on the Zoom call, the filmmaker previously wrote and directed 2005's Last Days, starring Michael Pitt (no relation to Brad) as "a Seattle musician" whose "life and career are reminiscent of those of Kurt Cobain," according to an IMDb synopsis.

"With all this resentment in our history, one might ask why I took yet another pitch for Kurt's film from Brad after all these years? It's because I'm in recovery," Love wrote in her Friday Instagram statement. "And resentment is like drinking poison and hoping the other person dies."

"I was over being mad about it. Plus, I heard Pitt was dealing with the same demons. So, we might both have changed our spiritual world views. Not to be," she added. "It's not just the Zoom I had with Brad in 2020 where I said no to @planbfilms & Brad producing it. It's that I said NO on the Zoom and that was not enough, and I was not heard. I was ignored."

Love reiterated that she "had no plans to bring it up with Marc Maron but up it came," insisting that she "told the story because I felt Pitt would not stop pursuing Kurt — unless I said it in public."

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

RELATED GALLERY: Iconic Roles That Were Almost Played by Someone Else

Love said she "truly" wishes Pitt "well," and that she doesn't want the actor "to be pissed off at me" and for her to "become his resentment."

"If he's mad at me, that's his problem. I enjoy him as a movie star immensely. Not so much as a biopic producer," she added. Plan B is behind films like 12 Years a Slave and 2022 titles Blonde and She Said.

Love, who said on the podcast she has never watched Fight Club, concluded by noting that she's "sure" Bonham Carter, 56, "was utterly meant to be Marla Singer and I do not bear her or Edward Norton or David Fincher or [co-producer] Art Linson — all people whose work & genius I respect immensely — any ill will."

She 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.