MOVIEWISE, BRAD PITT IS DOING THE TIME WARP – by Ellen Hale
LONDON — Moviewise, Brad Pitt is doing the time warp.
The actor gets shipped out to an ancient past as the voice of the mythical sailor in Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas, which opens July 2. And he dons a fetching mini-length warrior getup as Achilles (aka the heel guy) in next year’s Troy, the Greek epic now shooting in
Malta.
Add to that his off-camera role as the husband of Jennifer Aniston,and the soon-to-be-40 Brad is a busy man — one who can wax philosophical about his grueling schedule, too.
“I always look at these things as seasons. Like where I grew up we had distinct seasons, winter and fall and summer and spring” — though not necessarily in that order. This season, he says, “is about this workload.”
Still, he managed to squeeze in a pit stop in England to promote his DreamWorks cartoon feature.
Sinbad was his eye-opening introduction to the art of animation, which required him to do about two dozen recording sessions over four years.
“You’re in this rectangle box with a big glass window,” he says. “You’re like in a terrarium, and they are staring at you.”
You would think he might be used to the staring part by now.
Troy, meanwhile, is a throwback to the epics of old, a cast of thousands full of respected actors from various parts of the United Kingdom (Peter O’Toole, Julie Christie, Sean Bean, Brendan Gleeson, Brian Cox).
“It’s the biggest thing I’ve ever been involved in,” he says of the tale based on Homer’s Iliad and directed by Wolfgang Petersen (The Perfect Storm).
“It’s something Chuck Heston ought to be walking around in, you know?”
Just don’t call his outfit a toga, OK? “It’s actually just a flat-out skirt, and it’s quite comfortable.”