Actors Studio - Brad Pitt

the list of accomplishments is long and impressive thelma and louise a river runs through it legends of the fall california true romance seven twelve monkeys fight club snatch oceans 11 12 and 13. mr and mrs smith babel the assassination of jesse james by the coward robert ford burn after reading the curious case of benjamin button inglorious bastards the tree of life and moneyball add to that the academy award and golden globe nominations the golden globe national society of film critics new york film critics and venice film festival awards one and consider the fact that people magazine has named tonight's guest one of the 50 most beautiful people in the world twice and the sexiest man alive twice empire magazine has listed him as one of the greatest movie stars of all time and time magazine has listed him and angelina jolie in their annual 100 most influential people in the world issue for their philanthropic work those are a few of them hill house now jane pitt what other ethnic backgrounds were probably products of irish scots germans who settled in the area native american indian i know we have some seminole and some cherokee indian in us where did you grow up springfield missouri how many siblings do you have i have a younger brother doug and a younger sister julie what was your father's profession my father worked his way up to a trucking company and ended up managing it in his later years what was life in springfield like it's mark twain country it's jesse james country a lot of hills a lot of lakes i got my first bb gun preschool i got my first 12 gauge in kindergarten or first grade i was shooting up a year later really yeah what were your interests as a kid uh well sports girls shooting things in that order not quite what about movies were they an important part of movies were a big important important part of life was planet of the apes part of the apes was a big one for me yeah we go we have this the we also we that we had the apathon every summer and they would play all five movies straight and my mom maybe she just wanted a day off but she would drop me off in the morning and pick me up at nine that night saturday night fever saturday night fever is a big one for me because it was the first r-rated movie that i snuck into and it's still one of my all-time favorites but not just because i'm a profound dancer it's it was it was seeing another culture that was so much different than mine it was seeing the way they were would talk to each other at the table and getting these arguments and and uh you know he messes my hair i work very hard on my hair and he messes my hair and this kind of stuff and i i just uh and the language and and it was another culture for me was a foreign land to me what were your academic interests in high school i really liked math i liked math and science the most how did you do academically i did just well enough just well enough yeah what college did you attend university of missouri mizzou they had a really good j school journalism school and uh and it i visited all the campuses and some road trips and i think that's the one i had the most fun at when and why did you leave college it was two weeks before graduation and i realized i saw all my friends who were signed up for jobs and i realized i hadn't and i'd always lamented that acting was not the career choice where i grew up and it finally occurred to me that i could just load up my car and go to it and so i'm still like a couple of credits short of graduating who is run around sue that was my beat up pc datsun that i drove out how much money did you have in your pocket we had it right i left with 325 i probably landed with about 225 and and and i stopped at a mcdonald's and i saw this newspaper when i got to burbank i was staying in burbank and i said extra work you could be an extra and you had to pay 25 dollars and they take your picture and they send you out did you get some extra work yeah by that friday since 1994 we've heard some vivid accounts of the aptly named odd jobs that young actors and some of our students do did you have some as you began life in la i had a lot of i mean it's what you do right what did you do for example the famous one i had to dress up like a chicken for el polo loco and and say you know burritos 99 cents and then i and i drove strippers which was a interesting uh no no this is the active studio drama school at pace university we're very interested here in uh strippers in in the craft of our guest [Applause] obviously you've struck a nerve what do you mean you drove strippers you'd have to go to the the girls apartment pick her up and then you would have to drive her to the party you would then be responsible for playing the music which was cassette then and then you had to catch the clothes so the guys didn't steal them as they came off and then you had to try to collect the money at the end and get out of there alive and it was not always easy did you enjoy that work yes i did [Music] [Applause] i'll tell you something i found my acting coach from it too see i knew where i was going these are students after all this is what we want to know how did you find your acting coach through the strippers there was a new girl there and she told me about this class she started taking it turned out to be roy london who was a beautiful human being and roy was a major force in los angeles we've talked about him with sharon stone and with gina davis yeah that's right what did you get from him it was the first entry into craft into making it your own and to investing in your own experiences and seeing what you can bring to the table and it just it was that first thing that started pointing me in the direction i wanted to go in my opinion not since tom cruise skidded into view in his underwear framed in a doorway in risky business has there been as auspicious a film entrance as this one in which j.d describes his larcenous skills in thelma and louise [Applause] how did that role come to you with difficulty it was actually cast two times before it came up a third time and it was a week before they were starting to shoot and they were desperate and uh i i stuck my way in you have only a few scenes in the film one of them was a steamy love scene was it easy for you you're laughing was it funny i've stayed away from them since it's really um discombobulating uh how so uh well i was uh young and virile [Applause] and gina's gina on three occasions we've talked about a fascinating movie called [Applause] seven what threw you to this project i read the first three pages of the script and i went and i tossed it and it was about an old cop who wants out and the new cop wants in and and i i just said i've seen this story and a dear friend of mine who's sitting right over here cynthia who i've worked with for so many years said no just read it just read it read it read it and uh and i did and uh um and i said so i met with fincher and and it was really sitting down with uh my now dear friend david fincher uh and i remember this moment we just were talking the same language the same love of films the same irritations with film and just speaking the same language tell us about working with morgan freeman he's got this amazing ability to actually take a power nap between takes they're adjusting the light it'll go [Music] morgan put the gun down david and it's flawless [Applause] what did you see in detective david mills that made you want to play him there's a you know an american hubris to thinking you have the world figured out that character saw the world in black and white and good and bad and he pays in a big way for that hubris seven refers to the seven deadly sins and we see them one after another graphically and relentlessly the last two envy and wrath are saved for the finale of the film brad received an academy award supporting actor nomination and won a golden globe award for his portrayal of jeffrey goins in 12 monkeys this will explain why what drew you to that role i thought it was very important and more interesting to to stretch it see see how far you can go in in other directions did you do any research we did do some research at the bellevue here and then there was a problem because they were calling their parents and saying brad pitt came up to the hospital and they were calling the doctor saying oh no it's getting really bad again isn't he true true when george clooney was here recently we talked about oceans 11. [Applause] he said it was one of the easiest shoots of his career did you feel the same way yes i did one of the reasons george felt that way was the director steven soderbergh tell us about working with soderberg on ocean's 11. he's just no nonsense knows exactly what he wants he just all put us in a room together the first day and let us sniff each other out and everyone became instant friends and that thing he let rolling george clooney mentioned new fondly when he was in that chair he also said this i have done some horrible things to people truly truly horrible i'm working on one right now for brad pitt that might end his career i owe him so i'm getting it i'm working i've been working on for two years yeah i just let him sit i'm not going to tell you what it is but just know i got it [Applause] since your career is flourishing i gather that george's plot has not come to fruition yet can i tell you why he owes me [Applause] we were about to film in italy and george is george is our ambassador on the set and uh i sent a memo to the entire crew in italian that said dear crew oh i see this one coming up the highway um we wish you a wonderful shoot george clooney asks that um this is a very difficult role for him he needs to concentrate deeply mr clooney asked that you try not to interrupt him uh look him in the eye if you do need to address mr clooney please refer to him only as daniel or mr ocean sorry for the inconvenience we're all after the same thing let's make the best movie we can went on for two weeks [Applause] [Laughter] now he handled it gracely gracefully but uh he was he was becoming unnerved i think i knew that something bad was going to happen by me doing this so i came up with a second one [Applause] and i thought about a preemptive strike but it was so ugly whatever he's got this is uglier so bad it's so bad it's so bad i don't even know if i can do it it's so bad what drew you to one of the title roles in mr and mrs smith [Applause] i just found it really funny that a couple i mean race relationships are difficult as they are but that they actually wanted to kill each other i just found it really damn funny against your will or your wishes the two of you became at that moment the center of the tabloid universe yay [Applause] you better have a sense of humor about it right this is what the eager world saw on the screen we've heard her account of acting with you in this film tell us about acting with her under these circumstances and in this film well this film required a lot of invention along the way and when when you are in that situation you want a fellow actor that um is throwing out a lot of ideas and quick and decisive about it and that's her i think that's why she's gone on to write and direct she's she's really gifted in that way for me one of the most interesting aspects of tonight's journey is the way in which you and angelina have rendered the gossip irrelevant by using the attention and influence that fame brings in tireless and often selfless humanitarian and philanthropic work that's what you turned this story into how much money has the jolie pitt foundation donated to charities approximately would you say i have no idea i mean certainly tens of millions yes how have you and angelina responded to the katrina catastrophe in new orleans we've started with the recovery effort and bringing families home we took an area that had the least chance of coming back and we started building there and building homes that treated families with dignity that neighborhood is starting to thrive again haven't you also the two of you you moved into new orleans yeah we have a base there yeah angelina's deep personal devotion to children was evident children in general and children specifically when she was with us how many adopted and biological children do you and she have six you seem to be taking a great deal of pleasure from parenthood it's been the greatest adventure i've been on yet in 2007 brad was honored as best actor at the venice film festival for his performance in the assassination of jesse james by the coward robert ford [Applause] what kind of research did you do on the period and on jesse james i certainly read everything i could as we've established tonight i was quite comfortable with guns so that wasn't an issue how did what you learned about jesse james and the experience of bringing him to life affect your view of him of james and the way you played him i just found a man who was tormented by his i guess his his outcome i don't know how much he wrestled with guilt it was more about being caught in a trap not knowing how to how to get out of it or get above it here is brad pitt's jesse james [Applause] 2008 saw the arrival of a curious and fascinating movie called the curious case of benjamin button it would receive 13 academy award nominations including best picture best director and best actor for brad you must have had a crystal ball when you chose this one what prompted you to undertake the role of a man who ages backwards from dotage to infancy i've been familiar with this thing for 12 years had been floating around i just wasn't going to miss out on it we're going to spend time in new orleans which i of course have a love for it's just a great experience with this film a subject we seldom have reason to explore on our stage comes up and that of course is makeup what did the old age make up involved and how long did it take to apply it it started out six hours and then they got it down to five i mean counting the wig and everything i'm sure it was a shot in sequence so i would dare say that from day to day you would have to age or be young or yeah there was of course some bouncing around due to locations and things i'm open to that i like to roll the dice what are you know what's the hand we're going to get as far as sequencing of when you shoot things i find that exhilarating as well that brings us to a daring film that won the con film festival palm door and an oscar nomination is called the tree of life [Applause] what threw you to this movie terry and i had been terrified terry malik it was a thing that he was working on when he took his hiatus you know some 28 years ago and it's gone through many incarnations and and he said he was ready to do it and asked us to produce it and i said you know of course absolutely this is only his fifth film since badlands in 1973. tell us about working with him on the set well terry's a lovely lovely man he just he's so wonderful to talk to he um that's good brad that's that's good he's the guy standing there with the butterfly net and he's waiting till something comes by happens and he grabs it when it happens this role was a decided departure for you both externally and internally here is the character who is known only by his last name mr o'brien how much of that was improvised that whole scene was ad-libbed um that was you know a father who who was wrestling with a world that that he felt was more powerful than himself and wanting to prepare his kids for the idea for that they would face the same kind of hardships and he was doing it the best way he knew how to do it i find it a very upsetting scene actually in the past year you've had the good sense and taste to appear in two oscar-nominated films it's time for us to talk with great pleasure about moneyball you're credited as a producer like the tree of life this film was several years in development was it not yes five i think why if you're familiar with the book it's got economics and saber metrics and science at the forefront it took a lot of a lot of work and a lot of people to to to figure out what it was what it was going to be whom do you play billy bean billy bean is billy bean is the gm of the oakland a's we focus on his period during 2002. one of the most impressive elements of the movie is the apparent authenticity of the inside baseball negotiations like these [Applause] did you spend time with billy beam did spend a lot of time with billy just didn't want to do him wrong i really liked the guy immediately and met his family and there's a responsibility to of course to to do him justice who directed this movie mr bennett miller is mr bennett miller in the hospital mr bennett miller is in the house would you introduce him please [Applause] tell us about working with brad on this phone please from our very first meeting we discussed the trojan horse approach to making a film in the hollywood system i think we both felt like this film provided an opportunity to explore issues and look at something that is unresolved in the world in ourselves and it was a great it was a great partnership for me what's not being told about this movie is how much authorship this man had over the film and i i i love this film i don't say that about every film especially mine for our students i would like to ask you a couple of questions that with luck they may have to answer someday some actors like nicholson allow themselves great freedom from one take to the never next what they've done before now there's a consistent take to take do you have a pro i prefer the first i prefer to try to keep switching it up and seeing where it goes and where it lands you'll surprise yourself and a delightful ways how much of this role did you prepare before you arrived on the set a lot i studied this one you know for a few years working it and developing it and it it i can't tell you the value of that that's why saying you cannot research enough it's uh it's something that's going to come out of it how much of brad pitt winds up in any role that you play it has to be personal so i'm in i'm there's a bit of me in in all of it i it doesn't work otherwise good actors have a way of making us care about their characters because moneyball is a beautifully made and beautifully acted film we in the audience find ourselves rooting for billy and this entire team of cast offs and misfits as they struggle to pull off billy's miracle here's what happens when they come close to it [Applause] you may have noticed an actor in these scenes so did the academy for the best supporting actor nomination in this case the support is prodigious brad would you introduce your colleague to our students i would be happy to mr jonah hill [Applause] the sailor metric system that drives billy bean and the movie seems impenetrable to me you seem to have mastered it did you i tried my best um i'm not currently working for a major league baseball team at this moment um thank heaven we need you where you are thank you many of the key moments in the film are two handers you and brad tell us about working with brad it's great uh i mean he's sitting right there obviously i knew who he was and respected his work and then once i got to work with him especially in the capacity that our characters couldn't really function without the other one what is the jonah hill experience brett [Laughter] well um you're usually on bottom [Applause] usually it's messy it's messy but it's good it's good it's good really good it's generally under water get everything going i can't i can't say enough about joan as well i mean he acts like we did him a favor he's jonah hill for christ's sake my stuff doesn't work without jonah and and maybe that's true you know the other way certainly the way the characters were built that they they they completed each other god see what that movie did to us um are you saying are you saying i complete you i'm saying you complete me thank you thank you i've been waiting a long time at this year's golden globes when you and george clooney were competing with each other head to head film to film he introduced your film and you introduced his a show of mutual respect that is not normally associated with hollywood was that the foreign president's suggestion or did the two of you propose it no that was us i mean so much is being made out of a competition and i don't even think it exists really i have so much respect for this guy i mean no one in my generation certainly has given more in front or behind the camera as you go through these award ceremonies is it possible that the two of you will wind up voting for each other i would rather just recuse myself from voting altogether we begin our classroom session always with the questionnaire that was asked for 26 years in france by bernard pivo who does what i'm doing right now better than i can do it or anybody else can do it brad what is your favorite word um daddy what is your least favorite word i pooped [Applause] what turns you on exploration discovery what turns you off when someone unequivocally tells me it can't be done what sound or noise do you love my baby's sleeping at night the breathing it's when you're a parent you will understand what sound or noise do you hate i have this friend for 20 of 23 years and we probably talk almost every day on the phone and she does this [Music] and it drives me mental you don't like that sound i don't like it i love her what is your favorite chris word [Applause] i mean it's really it's underused it has great power and i think we can do for it what the brits did for so think about it what profession other than your own would you like to attempt architecture what profession would you absolutely not like to do right now a politician running for an office finally if heaven exists what would you like to hear god say when you arrive at the pearly gates i'm thinking about redoing the place got any ideas [Music] hear your students [Applause] hi brad how are you good my name is taylor place i'm a second year actor i'm a huge fan of fight club it's changed my life in ways that i don't even like recognize on a daily basis you've spoken about how you put some of yourself in each of your characters to make them your own how much do they affect you um well i listen i during tree of life my dear friends told me i was an absolute to to talk to i didn't think i was sure it affects you i like the facets that each character adds and makes you think about and makes you think about it in your own life and um the fight club i covered my trailer in porn covered i'm covered and like one bruce lee photo and then one day they said susan sarandon wanted to come by come say hi i said yeah great she came to the trailer and she was with her she come in she was with her daughter and and little natalie portman anyway be careful hi brad um my name is charles bryce i'm a third year actor my question is what is your process and has it changed from the beginning of your career as opposed to where you are now and if you just expand on that well process takes many forms i can't stress enough give yourself a break and and try anything and everything that feels right to help you get to this or help you access that and if it doesn't work discard it if you get somewhere from it then then keep exploring it but it gets honed down and gets tighter and tighter and tighter i think what we need to be doing is just trying to find truthful moments first and character will come character there's just i just felt like there's too much pressure on this idea of character it will come and you will be surprised how it comes and it will keep coming and it's an endless well and you don't have to worry about it you trust yourself don't pre-plan the scene because you will you will you'll stink it up you don't have to squeeze everything in in every scene it's gonna you're gonna do you're gonna do one scene and it's gonna you're gonna get some of what you you wanted in you get three moments of truth man you won and the next it's gonna inform the next scene or the next thing you do or the next take but but what i find more beneficial is before each take is a direction put myself in a situation like i want to kill this person i want to jump this person we're talking about intentions what we need at what we want at that moment just give yourself something different each take and see what see what happens all right thank you so much listen um thank you guys for sticking around this is interesting to me really it makes me [Applause] you

Channel: Katharine Clifton

Views: 719,206

Rating: 4.8183346 out of 5

Keywords: brad pitt, oceans eleven, george clooney, angelina jolie, mr and mrs smith, david fincher, seven, interview, brad pitt interview

Id: 6iPHTRDtC0M

Length: 32min 59sec (1979 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 13 2020