“He’s one of the last remaining big-screen
movie stars. It’s just a different breed of man” - great Tarantino says about him.
He has been taking part in wars, robberies and confronting opponents in the boxing ring for
all over his career. At the same time, he was and remains one of the sexiest men of Hollywood.
Today we are going to continue our story of Brad Pitt’s life. You’ll find out about
the dawn of his career, his women, the search for the meaning of life and the
reasons for leaving the big screen.
What movie does Brad Pitt consider
the most successful in his career?
How Did Jolie explain her role in
Pitt and Aniston’s separation?
And what helped the actor to overcome
drugs and alcohol problems?
It’s Biographer, be ready to know all the answers.
AT THE TOP OF FAME
Brad Pitt entered the new millennium at the height
of his career. By this time, he had established himself as a major Hollywood star after the
work on "Seven" and a zany Oscar-nominated supporting turn in "12 Monkeys."
After the release of the famous “Fight Club”, the actor begins a “criminal” period of his
career. He started a collaboration with Guy Ritchie, being a big fan of his previous
works. As the director told Esquire: "He called me and told me that he wanted to
be part of whatever I was doing next."
Pitt elaborated on the story:
Inset Quote: "At that time, I did something that I felt was very commercial, and I was really interested to see what new
directors were doing and what was coming out. So, I was viewing everything of first-time
directors, and I saw this movie, 'Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels,' by this cat named Guy
Ritchie. And so, I called him up and said, 'Hey, I really like what you're doing, and if there's
anything that I could fit in, then let's talk."
Understanding that he was ready for any
role in the movie “Snatch” and having failed the exam for imitating the London manner
of speech, Brad got one of his brightest roles, it was Mickey O’Neil. Brad had no problems with
the accent of his unusual character: his speech is not particularly understandable. Rapid muttering
became a kind of feature of his image.
Nevertheless, Pitt worried so much
about the accent right up to the start of filming. In an interview, he said
that he was taught to be intelligible, how could he mumble unintelligibly?
I want to jim [Ritchie] the day before and I said, 'Guy, I'm gonna f**k up your movie...'" he
said. But Richie helped him overcome this fear: all this was a gamble, even the actors
should not have understood it.
The actor took classes from boxing coach Joe
Goossen to prepare for the role. He praised Brad's efforts very much: “Brad showed up to work
every day of those five weeks. The sessions were at least two hours every time... He put himself
through the grinder to get where he ended up”
Between the filming of movies, Brad
had to gain about 10 pounds of muscle, which is a decent number considering his
physique. Although he did not like the fact that he would have to play a boxer again after
his recent experience in the previous film.
In addition, Brad almost didn’t take
shower during filming. How else to play a sleazy Irish traveler who lived in a van?
The movie was called “crazy” and “brilliant". Good humor, fantastic characters, good written
dialogues, professional directing and camerawork.
A special way of presenting visual material,
using unusual angles of camera and tricks gave the film a special atmosphere.
Pitt's efforts were highly appreciated too: he was able to fit into a strange, non-normative
role. The scenes of the actor's performance in the ring were especially vivid and memorable.
“Brad Pitt sheds his movie start personally and performs impressively as an Irish gypsy" - this
was the average verdict of viewers on IMDB.
Still in 2000, the actor participated in the
American comedy franchise “Jackass”, although he got only a small episodic role there. He starred
in two episodes of the show. In the episode “Night Monkey”, he put on a gorilla costume to go out
on the streets of Los Angeles together with four other joking heroes and make a little mess.
They ran around the city, jumped into bushes, drove around in carts and crashed
into each other on scooters.
Apparently, Pitt was ready to go on the
show, Johnny Knoxville said on Hot Ones.
Quote: "We were all like, oh, we really don't
want him to get hurt, because he's Brad Pitt and he's... But he did not care, he was ready
to do it," he recalled. "He was the first one in the middle of the street, we're like, 'No, no,
no, no! Don't do that!' But he didn't care."
By this moment, Brad was already developing
an affair with Jennifer Aniston. They started dating sometime in 1999, appearing together
at the Emmy ceremony. Already in 2000 they announced the wedding. Pitt was captivated by
Aniston's carelessness and brightness. "Jen is the woman of my life!", Pitt proudly declared
in every interview. The budget of the actors' wedding was estimated at about $1 000 000, the
ceremony itself took place in Malibu, but you can hardly find photos on the Internet. They say the
location was decorated with 50,000 flowers, and the fireworks cost the couple $20,000. The guests
recalled the ceremony was simple and relaxed, and the young people took vows in a playful way.
It was under the influence of Jennifer that the actor acquired the secular gloss familiar to many
and played his most successful commercial roles. And it was during this period that the
actor looked in love in every interview.
In 2001, a comedy thriller “The Mexican” by
Gore Verbinski with Brad in the title role was released. He got the role of Jerry Welbach,
who by chance stays on a criminal path.
Julia Roberts was his partner on the set. She
played his hysterical girlfriend Samantha.
Brad perfectly coped with the comedic role of a
clumsy criminal. Despite this, the film has a 54% rating on Rotten Tomatoes from 133 critics.
The audience did not find a consensus. The movie was accused of being chaotic
and incoherent. .“Roberts and Pitt in general are amazing actors. But they are
terrible in "The Mexican"," they said.
“They worked all the kinks out of it like any
Hollywood movie with Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts, but it’s quirky and weird enough to stand
out from the others.” - others decided. Some were surprised at how good it turned
out to be, others - how bad and delayed.
No matter how sophisticated the critics were in
their research, the movie earned $ 147.8 million, and it stayed in first place at the box
office in North America in the first week.
After the Mexican's awkward charisma
came the mysterious fleur “Spy Game”, where Brad got the role of ... well,
of course, a spy named Tom Bishop.
There, he tried on black aviators and got into
the image we will all like later in future.
The actor refused to participate in the equally
famous picture - "The Bourne Identity" to star in this film. Some scenes of the movie were
supposed to be shot in Israel, but due to the escalation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
in 2000, filming had to be moved to Morocco.
Tony Scott's thriller became a blockbuster hit,
grossing $143 million worldwide and received mostly positive reviews from film critics.
Pitt was praised for playing flawlessly in partnership with Robert Redford. Consensus
reads: "The outcome of the kinetic Spy Game is never in doubt, but it is fun watching
Robert Redford and Brad Pitt work."
In parallel, Pitt did not miss the
opportunity to star in the cult TV series “Friends" as an invited guest.
The third film in 2001 was… Well, maybe you can suddenly remember it, huh?... Of course, we
are talking about the famous “Ocean's Eleven”, a crime film by Steven Soderbergh.
Eleven people got together to rob a casino, Brad was among them in the role of Robert
"Rusty" Ryan, he is the right hand of the protagonist and his best friend. He is elegant
and balanced, but at the same time he is an avid gambler and sharper. This was how the
world saw the new image of the actor.
Each of the main actors went to reduce
his fee in order for the picture to be released. George Clooney set an
example by limiting his income:
In an interview , he said
Quote: "We said, if we all get paid, we can’t make the movie, so why don’t we all just
take a big chunk of the back end, work cheap, and see if there’s any money at the end,"
Las Vegas became a huge filming venue. "One of the things that scared me when I read the script
was the amount of time we would have to shoot at the casino," Soderbergh said. The team was lucky
that one of the producers, Jerry Weintraub, and the owner of the Bellagio Casino were friends.
It allowed them not to be limited to shooting only at night and feel free to close this or that
part of the casino or turn off the fountains.
By the way, if you noticed, Rusty has an
interesting feature: throughout the film he constantly eats or drinks something. It was the
actor’s idea: Brad believed that with all the planning of a multimillion-dollar casino robbery,
there would simply be no time for hearty dinners and his hero would have to eat fast food
as soon as such an opportunity arises.
This interesting feature had another
side: in one of the scenes, the actor had to eat 40 shrimp while reshooting.
In order to convey the friendly atmosphere between the main characters, the actors
had to spend a lot of time together.
Jerry Weintraub recalls:
Quote: "It wasn't hard to do because they all liked each other and as soon as they
started spending time together away from the set, real friendships developed. You can't buy
that. When you have actors who can't wait to go to work and work with one another other and
be with each other, that's exciting. In all my years in show business, I don't think I've ever
had as much fun as I've had on this movie. "
The film recouped the cost of time and
effort, and brought 450 million dollars. The casino robbery adventure became so popular
that the director decided to release two sequels, building a whole universe of cunning robbers
and evil billionaires in the Mojave Desert. That’s how “Ocean's Twelve“ appeared in
2004, and ”Ocean's Thirteen" in 2007. For participating in three parts, Pitt
received a very good fee - $ 30 million.
There was a lull in the
actor's career for a while.
In 2002, Brad appeared only in episodic
roles. In the melodrama “Full Frontal” by Steven Soderbergh he got a cameo role of himself, the movie demonstrated one day in the
life of some Hollywood celebrities.
The idea was unsuccessful and
defeated by film critics.
In George Clooney's comedy drama
called Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, he played the role of bachelor number
1 (you won't believe it) named Brad.
In addition, in 2002, Brad Pitt started a new
business - he founded his own production company called Plan B Entertainment, a joint venture with
Jennifer Aniston and Brad Gray, the head of the Hollywood film studio Paramount Pictures.
It was Pitt's company that produced such films as "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory"
starring Johnny Depp, and a few years later, not without Pitt's efforts, such films as
"A Mighty Heart" with Angelina Jolie and "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward
Robert Ford" were released. Plan B Entertainment also participated in the creation of the
film "The Departed", which won an Oscar.
In 2003, Pitt was engaged in the voice acting
of Sinbad in the animated film “Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas” and played a cameo in
Ryan Williams' dark comedy “Abby Singer".
But the stagnation didn’t last long. And
next year Brad got the opportunity to play Achilles in a historical drama “Troy”
In order for the actor's body to look like the body of an ancient Greek hero, Pitt had to
train for six months, working five days a week with a coach. Also he began to practice sword and
spear training. He tried so hard that, ironically, he injured his Achilles tendon, which caused
the shooting to be postponed for some time.
But this was not the only victim: during
the filming, the actor quit smoking, changed his own schedule for the sake of
training, and refused many culinary dishes, which was very difficult for him.
Wolfgang Petersen approached the creation with scale: just remember the views of the huge
Greek flotilla. And he clearly liked the image of Achilles performed by Pitt, considering
how often the latter was on the screen.
Well, why not? He came out
a formidable, rebellious, but generally attractive Spartan. And the actor's
performance was appreciated with dignity.
The actor's training was so serious that in many
scenes he refused to use an understudy. Brad Pitt and Eric Bana played the fight scene between
Achilles and Hector themselves. Both actors diligently prepared for it, rehearsed and even
trained together in a gym. The actors concluded a gentleman's agreement among themselves to pay each
other for each successful hit ($ 50 for a light and $ 100 for a serious one). As a result, Pitt
paid Ban $ 750, but he did not receive a cent.
The film was a great success, grossing
$497 million. Brad received about 17.5 million for his role, which was quite good.
The reviews were contradictory. The number of positive reviews from critics slightly
exceeds the number of negative ones. Metacritic gave the film 5.6 points.
Professional critics were not so generous. Jonathan Foreman from the New York Post
wrote that "the film "Troy" was spoiled by one of the worst castings in recent
Hollywood history: the lackluster ensemble hired by the director was overwhelmed by
impressive scenery and mass scenes."
Roger Ebert, one of the most famous film
critics, gave the film 2 stars out of 4.
The critic was dissatisfied with the lack of
Greek gods, characters shown as typical action movie heroes, and computer-generated armies. The
characters are not as complex and conflicted in the Greek drama as they were shown in the film.
DRAMA AND COMEDY IN THE LIFE OF ACTOR
A series of successful projects with Pitt's participation continued and already
in 2005 the film “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” was released. The story tells how the two main
characters, John and Jane Smith, played by Brad Pitt and Angelina
Jolie, are trying to build a family relationship. And everything would be
fine if they weren't both killers.
Jolie was not the first candidate for
the role. Initially, Nicole Kidman was supposed to be Mrs. Smith, but she
eventually refused this opportunity because of her participation in the
filming of “The Stepford Wives”.
After Brad also left the project, the producers
began sorting through the candidates. There was even an idea to invite Gwyneth Paltrow to
create a special tension in the film.
Doug Liman admitted: “But Brad is a human being.
Even if he was game for it, it’s wrong for us to put him in a situation where he’s going to have
to relive the demons of a relationship”.
Only after Jolie agreed to the
role, Pitt returned to filming.
Angelina mentioned that she had her own reason
to agree to the role. In an interview with Vanity Fair, she explained that two unsuccessful
previous marriages, with actors Johnny Lee Miller and Billy Bob Thornton, helped her get into the
role. She said: "It was a study of partnership, what's going wrong, and what we're struggling
with,". "Finally, it's: can they work as a team? And are they covering for each other?”
By this point, both actors were popular stars. Therefore, the news about the joint project
generated a huge interest from the press and an inextinguishable onslaught of paparazzi. According
to the memoirs of producer Akiva Goldsman, "paparazzi armies lined up along the highway…
It was impossible to stop them." The problem became so serious that some members of the press
inadvertently got into the film. As a result, they had to be cut from the final version.
It got to the point that they promised 300 thousand dollars to the shooting
group for a joint photo of actors. “[Then they] were using a scanner to listen to
our walkie-talkies.” - said the director.
The filming process was interesting, largely
due to the fact that both Pitt and Jolie were “the force to be reckoned with.” The director
admitted that the personalities of the actors were the opposite of the images they played.
Quote: “She in the movie is playing the way Brad is in real life, and vice versa. I mean,
he really is a homemaker. He’s into fabrics and art and architecture and what color
is on the wall, is it eggshell or ecru? …She had no point of reference at all,
from her own life, of what a normal home would be like. And she’s much more into
weapons, as a human being, than Brad is. Any time my prop guy did show-and-tells of knives
and guns, she’d be very, very knowledgeable”
Shooting competitions between the main actors
added fuel to the fire. Both stars took lessons with weapons to look believable. And the live
ammunition that was used, at the same time, taught them to trust each other. Moreover,
Jolie, like Pitt, preferred to perform tricks in difficult scenes on her own.
The competition was not only in shooting, but also in combat scenes. In an interview,
Angelina admitted that it was more difficult for Pitt to perform such scenes because it was
not easy for him as a man to hit a woman.
“We wanted, you know, every time a
husband and wife says to each other, I could just kill you — we thought, what
if they really could?” - she recalled.
By this point, Pitt had been married to
Aniston for 5 years. After the end of Friends, Jennifer declared that she was ready to
replenish the family, and the couple's fans discussed their wonderful marriage. In
an interview with The Guardian , she said: "It's about time. You know, I think you can work
when you have a child, you can work pregnant, you can do anything. So I'm looking forward to
slowing down." And after the filming was over, she planned to go on a trip with Brad.
But the miracle did not happen. The big passion on the screen of “Mr. and Mrs. Smith”
turned into a big passion off the set. Rumors began to circulate around brangelina,
which eventually turned out to be confirmed.
Jolie recalled how her
relationship with Pitt began:
Quote: "I didn't know much about Brad's
personal life... I was quite happy to be a single mother. [...] Suddenly this
strange friendship developed between us. A few months later, I realized that I couldn't
wait to start working on the film. We just enjoyed everything we had to do together and
became something of a couple. It wasn't until the end of filming that we realized that maybe
[our relationship] was more than we thought."
On January 7, 2005, Aniston and Pitt
officially announced their separation, emphasizing that they remained friends.
The actor commented on their divorce: “...I haven't lived an interesting
life for myself. I think my marriage has something to do with it. This marriage
pretended it was something it wasn't."
Jolie and Brad's romance grew
into a ten-year relationship and made a family with six children.
Write your opinion in the comments: what couple do you consider cool? Is it a relationship
with Jolie or Jennifer? And we continue…
“Mr. and Mrs. Smith” became very
popular and brought in $487 million. Although it had mixed reviews. The birth of
"Brangelina" greatly overshadowed the film both during filming and at the box office. Everything
was complicated by the fact that fans and viewers were more interested in the details of the
personal life of the heroes than the movie itself. Since that time, there were almost no interviews
held without provocative questions:
The next was another big work by Brad Pitt -
"Babel", the movie of Alejandro G. Iñárritu. There the actor was able to demonstrate
his potential as a dramatic actor.
And for its sake, Brad turned
down the role in The Departed, as he was a fan of the director's work.
A complex plotline, a lot of characters that are intricately intertwined with the genius of
Inarritu, reveal the human essence and cultural conflicts that everyone faces. Pitt's character is
simple and complex at the same time, he is either a rude American, or a caring husband. This time
you won't see a cute face with a mysterious smile. Pitt is serious, frowning, he is on edge.
But it's worth watching him in this image.
Another unusual role in the actor's piggy
bank is the image of the legendary raider and robber of the Wild West, Jesse James.
His life was illustrated in Andrew Dominik's biographical western The Assassination of
Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.
The director was able to show us another
untypical side of Brad: gloomy, mournful, compassionate and kind at the same time. Here we
see Pitt in the role of a daring, unpredictable sadist who kills not only out of necessity,
but also for his own pleasure. Gradually, his character falls into paranoia, seeing
betrayal in close friends and associates.
A deep work that conveys a deep and
contradictory human experience to the viewer. In that period we see the desire of the actor to
invest his time in serious, meaningful stories.
In 2019 Pitt told the New York Times:
Quote: “In the ’90s I did become aware that there was this kind of leading-man
role that you could plug any of us into and it didn't even matter,”..“We
would all have the same result.”
For his role, the actor was awarded the
Volpi Cup for Best Actor, In 2008 the film was awarded two Oscar nominations, a
Golden Globe nomination and many others.
In 2008, Pitt performed one of his
most high-profile roles in the film “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button". The film
was the actor's third work with director David Fincher and was based on the short story of
the same name by Francis Scott Fitzgerald. The role radically differs from the previous
ones, it’s energetic and revolutionary in style, visual presentation and tone. Gradually it
involves us in the plot and asks such simple and such important questions: the transience
of life and the importance of its moments.
The love thread played by Pitt and
Cate Blanchett is also important.
The actor's desire to choose roles not just
for the sake of roles can be seen. Brad tried to be critical of the role selection in order to
prove his talent and choose interesting projects. However, such projects required a lot.
To make everything look as natural as possible, Pitt was for about five hours every day under the
power of makeup artists. Despite the non-standard main role, the actor coped with it perfectly,
plausibly playing his hero both at 16 and 60, adding his own charisma to the image,
which makes Button a pleasant character.
