Here’s What The Cast Of ‘Se7en’ Had To Say About The Making Of This Horror Masterpiece

Although it’s now been over 25 years since David Fincher’s Se7en made it onto the silver screen, it remains one of the best horror movies ever made. Following two detectives as they attempt to solve grisly murders based on the seven deadly sins, it gave us iconic scenes like the Lust segment and had us all quoting “What’s in the box?!” for years. If it’s had this big of an impact on the audience, you can only imagine what it was like for the actors. Read on for a sneak peek behind the scenes of Se7en with quotes from Brad Pitt, Morgan Freeman, and the rest of the A-list cast.

Brad Pitt on agreeing to star in Se7en

With Se7en, I said, ‘I will do it on one condition — the head stays in the box. Put in the contract that the head stays in the box,’ Actually, there was a second thing, too: ‘He’s got to shoot the killer in the end. He doesn’t do the ‘right’ thing, he does the thing of passion.’

Brad Pitt

Gwyneth Paltrow on deciding to do Se7en

The script was a pretty traumatic read, I have to say. And I read my part and I was like, ‘oo, a head in a box, really?’ But then they said, ‘and Brad Pitt’s the costar’ and I was like, ‘okay, I’m fine with it.’

Gwyneth Paltrow

Morgan Freeman on the characters

The underlying truth of all of these characters is they are in the violent business.

Morgan Freeman

Brad Pitt on the characters’ ultimate journey

If the ultimate journey is truth, or quest defined in a scene, then don’t fight it. At least, at its worst, you’ll have something that’s truthful.

Brad Pitt

Brad Pitt on his feelings about Se7en

To me, this is the closest I’ve been to a perfect film. Can we end on that?

Brad Pitt

Morgan Freeman on his feelings about Se7en

There’s all this loss and angst and death and sense of helplessness in that movie – if I saw it in the theater, I probably wouldn’t have liked it.

Morgan Freeman

Gwyneth Paltrow on what it was like on set

I had no sense while on set that we were making this terribly scary horror movie. It was a really nice experience.

Gwyneth Paltrow

John C. McGinley on discovering the Sloth victim

It was so visually arresting that it just looked fake. But it certainly wasn’t.

John C. McGinley

Michael Reid MacKay on playing Sloth

People still think they used a dummy in that scene. I get that a lot. But that was me.

Michael Reid MacKay

Michael Reid MacKay on being recognized

Four years ago, I was in Ralphs (supermarket), walking down the aisle. And this guy said, ‘Sir, I loved in you in Se7en, And I was like, ‘How did you know it was me? I was a corpse for God’s sake.’

Michael Reid MacKay

Brad Pitt on proposed changes to the ending

They go, ‘You know, he would be much more heroic if he didn’t shoot John Doe — and it’s too unsettling with the head in the box. We think maybe if it was the dog’s head in the box …’

Brad Pitt