Brad Pitt sat down for a lengthy interview with the Los Angeles Times to promote The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, and he’s still talking about Angelina and their family, aging, politics and New Orleans. Honestly, I didn’t realize that the film carried on to 2005, I thought it was just a straight-up period piece only going as far as the immediate post-WWII years. Apparently, it goes up to Hurricane Katrina.
"Once you hit 40, you start reexamining the math of it all," says the actor, who turned 45 on Dec. 18. So far, he indicates, the pluses and minuses are adding up just fine. "I'll trade wisdom for youth any day," Pitt says.
That existential swap lies at the heart of David Fincher's film, loosely adapted by screenwriter Eric Roth from a whimsical 1922 short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Brought into the world on Armistice Day, 1918, as a slack-skinned, 80-year-old man, Benjamin bears witness to many of the century's epochal events, while the film leapfrogs from New Orleans to Murmansk to New York to the Ganges. Finally he and the film come home to rest in the Crescent City just as Hurricane Katrina is about to strike.
But none of Benjamin's picaresque adventures or brief encounters shapes him more than his passionate, odds-defying relationship with Daisy Fuller (Cate Blanchett), a ballerina who meets Benjamin when she's still a child. Although the pair's prime years overlap oh-so-fleetingly, their souls merge in a lasting union. The bittersweet irony of their predicament raises the question of whether "Benjamin Button" is, in the end, a tragedy.
In some ways, "Benjamin Button" plays as an elegy for New Orleans and for a lost (or rapidly vanishing) part of what culture critic Greil Marcus called "the Old, Weird America." Personally, Pitt says, he won't be sorry to see the current White House administration exiting stage left. But he thinks it would be premature to start writing a national obit.
"America's known for our ingenuity," he says. "We put a man on the moon, for Christ's sake. And it'd be a shame to lose that definition because of some kind of fear of losing what we were, or what we had. That's the quickest way, I think, to end it all. We're going to be all right."
Because it spans the character's entire life, "Benjamin Button" inadvertently serves as a showcase for Pitt's various cinematic personas. At one point in the movie, he evokes Jack London's Sea Wolf as a craggy sailor of fortune. Later in the film, when Benjamin reaches his prime, Pitt brings to mind James Dean on a motorcycle, or John F. Kennedy on his sailboat, navigating the swells of destiny.
"It's a tragedy in the sense that any love involves loss, and that's the risk you take," Pitt responds. "And the greater the love, the greater the loss. I certainly feel that now with the woman I'm with, and the children that I have. But whatever the course may be, this time together is extraordinary."
[From LA Times]
I really like that line - “The greater the love, the greater the loss.” It’s a little Oprah-y, but it communicates volumes beyond the normal public relations shenanigans. Brad talks more about Angelina and his acting process. The most ZOMG moment comes when he refers to his life before Angelina as a "dead end," although I don’t care for the way the LA Times guy refers to Brad’s children - separating them between “their own” and “adopted”. My feeling is that the best, most politically correct way to refer to these (or any) children is biological and adopted, not “their own”.
As everyone but a handful of Himalayan monks doubtless knows, the woman who sleeps by Pitt's side these days is Angelina Jolie, with whom he shares parenting duties for six children (three of their own, three adopted). During an interview of an hour's duration, Pitt refers repeatedly to his satisfying home life and the way it has refashioned his priorities.
"I had a whole other life and I got to experience a lot. And I probably got away with more than I should," he says. "And it kind of ran its course, you know, it kind of hit a dead end." Fatherhood, he notes, is "the direction I always thought I would go in. But not until, with Angie and it felt like a natural evolution, a natural direction."
Pitt agrees that, as he has matured professionally, "I don't have to grope as much for the character. I can get there quicker, so it's not as much trial and error," he says. "Also, as I get older, more experiences, I'm more fine-tuned in what I'm after, what I think speaks in the piece. And lastly I want to hurry and get home to my kids."
[From LA Times]
David Fincher, the director of Benjamin Button, is also quoted in the piece. He talks more about how Brad’s acting process has changed, and comes close to saying that Brad’s a better actor now then when they first met, some-odd 14 years ago. Personally, I agree. I always that Brad was rather "pretty but dumb," but his personal and professional choices the past few years have really impressed me. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is getting great reviews, with a lot of people singling out Brad’s performance, and he’s an early favorite for an Best Actor Oscar nomination. Benjamin Button is in theatres now.
[Thanks to Daisy242 for the heads up on the LA Times piece!]
Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are shown at the premiere of The Case of Benjamin Button on 12/8/08. Credit: WENN
WRITTEN BY KAISER
Posted in Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt
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148 RESPONSES TO "BRAD PITT SAYS LIFE BEFORE FATHERHOOD WAS 'A DEAD END'"
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Wif: December 26th, 2008 at 7:43 pm
I don't normally weigh in on the whole AJ vs. JA thing, because I like and dislike aspects of both of them, but if I were JA I would be crushed by him saying that life, during the time of my marriage, was a "dead end".
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geronimo: December 26th, 2008 at 8:04 pm
I think people will read into the 'dead end' bit what they want. To me, it seems very personal and very much about himself, and the shallowness of the Hollywood life he was leading and the lack of direction it had. If the comparison between the quality of life he had before AJ and the life he's living now comes across as unkind and/or thoughtless, too bad. He's entitled to talk about it, and be happy about it.
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Jenna: December 26th, 2008 at 8:24 pm
I just wish he would shave that horrible thing above his lip.
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Judy: December 26th, 2008 at 8:28 pm
I dont think everything he says about his life is about his marriage to Jen for cripes sake. He has moved on without her. It was a done deal before he even left her. To him not having children meant a dead end. This just says he felt very strongly about having children one way or the other.
I guess maybe AJ is the love of his life and she gave him the children he wanted and he feels that his life before was a dead end and maybe it was..
To be honest I doubt if he even thinks about his ex wife ,it is the rest of the people who keep dragging her into his new life. I dont know why people just cant stop with the POOR JEN crap.
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Bellatrix: December 26th, 2008 at 8:29 pm
I strangely believe that Brad Pitt would have felt the immense beauty of being a father had he had children with Jolie or any other woman.
He seems to enjoy fatherhood. That includes the way things happened: him falling in love with Jolie and deciding to adopt Maddox and Zahara too at first. The rest is celebrity magazine history
Why do people always want to blame a particular person? Sometimes a life change coincides with a change of partner. Same particular views on how to live and shared interest and desires at that precise moment are definitely very stimulating.
Good for him. There are, fortunately, many other men who are this happy and ecstatic about being a parent in the normal world.
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Orangejulius: December 26th, 2008 at 8:33 pm
Me too, Jenna, on dumping the facial hair. Those things are horrible to kiss.
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Rosanna: December 26th, 2008 at 8:35 pm
I think Brad is a great person. There's no other way to rebuff JA's rants than to put her down "without putting her down" (read: "the direction I always thought I would go in. But not until, with Angie and it felt like a natural evolution, a natural direction.” -- that is to say, it was him who didn't want kids, not JA).
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kelly: December 26th, 2008 at 8:40 pm
Maybe if the BrAnJen trio would all just keep quiet about their personal lives and stick to pitching their movies -- sans existentialist comments on life and love and marriage, either past or future -- we could all get back to giving them the weight they deserve, which is actually very little. In the grand scheme of things, philosophy from someone famous only for his ability to look good and deliver lines in a reasonably comprehensible manner should be of no more import than what the temperature was yesterday.
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KLaw: December 26th, 2008 at 8:47 pm
That last photo of Brad is so old-Hollywood. It reminds me of Errol Flynn. *swoon*
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Wif: December 26th, 2008 at 8:50 pm
But that's my point Rosanna, he is saying that Ange is his great love and he didn't feel enough about Aniston to have kids with her. And I'm not saying he shouldn't say it, and I'm not saying that he shouldn't have dumped Aniston or am having a pity party for her or anything. I'm just saying that if my ex said that about me, knowing that millions of people would read it, it would deal a serious blow to my ego. (But maybe the super famous/rich/beautiful feel differently, I don't know.)
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Trace: December 26th, 2008 at 9:01 pm
He is looking back in his life and giving a subtle, philosophical, yet revealing answer. The whole Hollywood life he was leading being one half of the "golden" couple with Aniston was a DEAD END. He was in a loveless marriage with his ex-wife and didn't want to have children with her. He sounds like he's much happier now and definitely in a better place.
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Enonymous: December 26th, 2008 at 9:14 pm
kelly well said, I agree.
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truth-SF: December 26th, 2008 at 9:16 pm
This article says to me that you shouldn't be with someone just because you look good and ppl want you to be together. You should follow your heart no matter what anyone else says or feels because the bottom line is, at the end of the road, "IT IS YOUR LIFE, NOT THEIRS." And the choices you make should reflect who you are and what makes you happy. And everyone else should worry about theirs.
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Ned: December 26th, 2008 at 9:24 pm
It sound like it's Angelina calling the shots and making him make these statements.
This is in response to the "uncool" remark toward Angelina endlessly talking about how much Brad loves her and her children.
People started talking about how much for 2 years Angelina is talking about HIS FEELINGS and how he sees her, but never hear Brad.
Now he is going to futher alienate himself from women all over the world.
Women who were already disliking what he did.
He must be really stupid to make this statement that comes across as disrespectful toward years of marriage and making him look- not only like a passive, insincere and a cheater - but also- very stupid for saying that and distansing even further a potential audience.
Given his past box-office failings- he should really get a smarter woman telling him what to do.
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Ned: December 26th, 2008 at 9:28 pm
Angelina has to be stupid to think that this might help her broken image.
Since she already done that to Billy Bob's fiance, we know that it really has nothing to do with what was the state of the marriage.
While Angelina seems pathetic to try and excuse her going after a married man, Brad seems flat out stupid for trying to diminish such a long relationship of almost a decade of his life.
We all know he is not a smart guy, but damaging his image even further, is surprising even when applying very low standards.
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Baholicious: December 26th, 2008 at 9:39 pm
Mm hm. This master of tact also said in another article I read that Mr. & Mrs. Smith stands out as his favourite film for him because "that's where (I) fell in love."
I think all this "dead end" etc. talk is deliberately aimed at Aniston to put her in her place and tell her to keep her yap shut. I'm sure he could go into much great detail if need be and I think at this point he'd have no problem going 'there.'
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HallieB: December 26th, 2008 at 10:04 pm
Ned, you have fallen headlong into the sewer filled trap of believing gossip. Brad is a very smart man, has thrived in celeb land now going on 20 years. He does not need Angelina or anyone else to put words in his mouth, he is saying exactly what he wants to say, and that is that he totally loves Angelina, totally loves being a dad, wanted kids with Angelina and no one else. Brad has said the same thing now in RStone and on the Charie Rose show last nite. If he was so concerned about any box office he would be silent according to the way you think. Brad is telling us how he actually feels and I see nothing wrong with that as it is his right to do so.
Just accept that Brad is very much in love and happy with Angelina and their family, they are his #1 priority, not anything or anyone else.
Brad's own words indicate that he was not happy with Jen, saying it was a deadend life. That is how he feels, his truth, no made up PR.
ned just because you have a fantasy about the lives of others does not make that fantasy the truth.
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pj: December 26th, 2008 at 10:11 pm
Way to much thought given to the Jolie-Pitt and Aniston "triangle". The interview is Brad talking and reflecting on his life and family. Editing his thoughts and words to get back at the ex, no way. Each person involved has every right to say what they want about their lives. It is just that Brad and Angie are talking about the present and Jen is talking about the past.
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Robin: December 26th, 2008 at 10:15 pm
Well ned, your comments are rediculous.
Brad is doing what people in love do, talk about the people they care about. Yes he is gushing but so do all others. BTW, he was with Jen for 6+ years, not any 10 years. Really it does not take much to be accurate, and in truth Brad will soon have been with Angelina for as long as he was married to Jen. There are enduring bonds between a man and the mother of his kids, no mattter what. Angelina will always be a part of Brad's life. Jen is no longer a part of Brad's life and I do not see why you act as if she is, he owes her nothing at this point the way she has disrespected the mother of his much loved kids. The past is the past and is over, done. Brad never ever even utters Jen's name, she is severed from his life.
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Ned: December 26th, 2008 at 10:15 pm
It's been 2.5 years of Brangelina- and until now it was Angelina endlessly talking about how much Brad loives her, loves her body etc.
Brad never said a word neither about his past marriage not about his love for Angelina.
So after Oprah tried to push him to talk about how he feels about Angelina, and after the "uncool" remark- Angelina has used Brad AGAIN as her surrogate.
Everybody has noted that it is only Angelina doing the talkning about how Brad feels- so now she is using Brad to try and hurt Jennifer and get back at her remark and prove everyone that it's not only her doing the talking about his feelings.
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HallieB: December 26th, 2008 at 10:17 pm
pj, thank you. ITAWU. All any of us have is the now, and that is what is important.
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