Pittsburgh often gets a bad rap, dating back to its early industrial days when an 1868 article in The Atlantic Monthly described the then-heavily polluted city with the since overused, and often misquoted term “hell with the lid taken off.” The smack talk didn’t end there, as the city has endured numerous slights, ranging from a famous Calvin and Hobbes comic to actress Sienna Miller calling the town “Shitsburgh” in 2006, a silly insult that elicited a lot of overly defensive yinzer rage.
Still, Pittsburgh has its champions, including many celebrities who have shot films and TV shows around the city. City Paper compiled some of the best shout-outs from actors and directors who had a grand time working in the city.
Christian Bale
Batman has a strong connection to Pittsburgh, with native Michael Keaton playing the DC superhero, followed decades later by Christian Bale, who portrayed the masked crusader when the city became Gotham for the 2012 blockbuster The Dark Knight Rises. After that, Bale appeared in another film shot in the Steel City, the 2013 drama Out of the Furnace.
When he returned once again to shoot the 2023 film The Pale Blue Eye, TribLive reporter Rob Owen asked what kept bringing him back, to which Bale replied, “I had a really wonderful experience the first time when I shot Out of the Furnace, made a lot of great friends, one of whom is your incoming (U.S.) senator, John Fetterman. I love the people of Pittsburgh; the crews are fantastic. Love the people of Braddock. I have a real affinity for that city.”
Tom Cruise
Given that Cruise has shot films in glamorous cities around the world, mainly as the lead in the Mission: Impossible franchise, li’l ole Pittsburgh hardly seems notable. But the star only had praise for the location of Jack Reacher, the film he shot here in 2012 — when he appeared at a local premiere event, he spoke on how “warm and gracious” everyone in the community had been to him, adding, “I hope that you’re proud of how your city looks in the film — I’m very proud of the way it looks. I think it’s stunning, I think it’s a beautiful city.”
While this may seem like pandering, the fact that his daughter, Suri, recently started attending Carnegie Mellon University points to some truth in his statement.
Jake Gyllenhaal
Few celebrities go as hard for Pittsburgh as Jake Gyllenhaal — in 2009, the actor revealed the temporary Steelers tattoo he got after shooting Love and Other Drugs here. However, nothing warms a Steel City heart like the story he told during an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live about attending a Steelers game and receiving a treasured, unwashed Terrible Towel from a fan who, upon giving it to him, exclaimed “I’m a huge fan of Bubble Boy!”
Chloe Sevigny
The ultimate ‘90s It girl had a lot of positive things to say about Pittsburgh, where she shot the short-lived series Those Who Kill. A 2014 Marie Claire article lists everything she loved about her stay here, with her gushing about, among other things, the museums, shopping, and drink scene (she praised Kelly’s Bar in East Liberty for making “a darn good martini.”)
Kevin Smith
While many might balk at the suggestion, Smith’s raunchy comedy Zack and Miri stands as a love letter to Pittsburgh, featuring sights from all around the city and capturing its residents’ odd brand of friendliness, best represented by the drunk Steelers fan who wanders into a late-night porn shoot.
Smith, a New Jersey native, has filmed multiple movies in Pittsburgh, including Dogma (which, coincidentally, celebrated its 25th anniversary this year). In 2019, the director shared an Instagram post where he’s posing with frequent collaborator, actor Jason Mewes, outside the Saints Peter and Paul Church in East Liberty, where parts of Dogma were shot.
Elijah Wood/Guillermo del Toro
Over his long career, Wood has gone from playing wide-eyed moppets to portraying Tolkien’s idealistic hero Frodo Baggins to now producing and starring in numerous, often bizarre horror films. It makes sense, then, that he would be drawn to a spooky town like Pittsburgh: after the veteran actor shot the 2015 film The Last Witch Hunter here, he raved about one particular aspect of the city — the ScareHouse, a haunted attraction that, at the time, operated out of Etna.
During an appearance on Late Night with Seth Meyers (sidenote: it’s worth mentioning that Myers has twirled the Terrible Towel more than a few times as a self-proclaimed Steelers fan), Wood excitedly touted ScareHouse’s amazing effects and “invasive” Basement element.
Guillermo del Toro also visited ScareHouse along with fellow filmmaker Michael Dougherty, and night-vision footage from a promotional video shows the Mexican horror fantasy director looking positively gleeful as he walks past the attraction’s many terrifying characters.
Given that ScareHouse has suffered several setbacks over the past few years, these endorsements serve as a reminder that preserving these kinds of assets adds to the city’s distinct character and makes it attractive to visitors, famous or not.
This article appears in Nov 13-19, 2024.
