A twice Golden Globe winner with six nominations, Brad Pitt stars as a trained killer in the action/comedy Bullet Train, opening this week.
Pitt spoke to the journalists of the Hollywood Foreign Press during several interviews between 1992 and 2004 about working with Robert Redford as a director on A River Runs Through It and as a fellow actor in Spy Game (2001) by Tony Scott, about the actors that he most admired growing up and other directors he worked with.
The first time HFPA journalists interviewed Brad Pitt was in February 1992, after his breakout role in Thelma & Louise directed by Ridley Scott, when he had already completed shooting A River Runs Through It, from the 1976 novella by Norman Maclean. He spoke about the actors he admired growing up: “I remember that Robert Redford and Paul Newman were big in my family, my dad was a fan of them, because of the kind of movies they stood for, like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), about one man against the system, standing up for his principles. So they were actors that you respected. But I remember movies more specifically than people, films like Midnight Cowboy (1969) with Dustin Hoffman, Serpico (1973) and Dog Day Afternoon (1975) with Al Pacino. These films meant something to me.”
Category: BP Press
Brad Pitt says retirement still a long way off
Brad Pitt scotched talk of imminent retirement as he travelled to Paris for the premiere of his Jackie Chan-inspired action caper “Bullet Train”.
The 58-year-old had worried fans that his acting days may be numbered after a GQ interview last month in which he said he was in the “last semester” of his career.
But Pitt told AFP: “I’m not getting out by any means.
“It seems that might have been taken as a statement of retirement. That’s not what I was saying,” he said.
“I’m over that hump of middle age and so I’m looking at that last leg… how do I want to spend that time? At my age, you’ve made enough mistakes… now there’s a comfort in applying that kind of wisdom.”
Read more. Now the ridiculous media can stop abusing and misinterpreting his quote. This article has also been added to BP Press.
GQ – Brad Pitt Opens Up His Dream World
We know him as a legendary leading man, a Hollywood power broker, maybe the greatest heartthrob of all time. But Brad Pitt isn’t attached to any of those old conceptions. And, as Ottessa Moshfegh discovers, his ambitions for the rest of his life are more mystical than we ever could have imagined.
Brad Pitt tries to remember his dreams. He keeps pen and paper on his bedside table and records everything he can recall when he wakes up in the morning. “I’ve found that to be really helpful,” he says. “I’m curious what’s going on in there when I’m not at the helm.” He tells me this one recent afternoon in the brightness of his living room, at his Craftsman home in the Hollywood Hills. For a long while, his sleep had been haunted by a particularly persistent and violent dream—the particulars of which he later describes for me in an email exchange.
Read more. Or at our BP Press archive for a smooth read. GQ is for sale June 28th!
Check out the behind the scenes exclusive videoclip at GQ.com!
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Gwyneth and Brad Pitt: On Bruce Paltrow and the Cashmere Shirt That Inspired a Business
If you’ve browsed our Father’s Day gift guide, you might recognize the shirt in the photo above. It’s from a new-to-the-goop-shop brand called God’s True Cashmere, which comes highly recommended to us (well, to Gwyneth) by Brad Pitt. Below, we interview the founder, and GP talks to Brad about his involvement in the business, his love of the late Bruce Paltrow, and more.
For holistic healer–turned–Brad Pitt’s business partner Sat Hari Khalsa, the journey to entrepreneurship was, in her own words, divinely driven. “In October 2018, I had a dream where Brad was telling me that he wanted more softness in his life, more green cashmere,” Sat Hari says. Coincidentally, Pitt had said that exact thing to his stylist just two days prior.
Inspired by this vision, Sat Hari set out to make her friend a cashmere button-up based on one she had been given by a client almost a decade earlier. “I knew that these shirts existed, but they weren’t exactly what I wanted, and I couldn’t find them again,” she says. “So I called around to all the different fashion houses to see if somebody could make a cashmere shirt in time for Christmas, and everyone basically said no.”
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David Leitch On Directing Action In A Confined Space: ‘It Forces You To Be Creative’
If there’s one thing we’ve come to expect from David Leitch, former Brad Pitt stunt double, director of Atomic Blonde and Deadpool 2 and major contributor to John Wick, it’s impeccable on-screen action.
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“I’m not gonna say that it was without its challenges,” Leitch tells Empire. “I think there’s an expectation with summer movies that you have a certain level of action and spectacle. How do you create that in this confined space? It just forces you to be creative.” Where the John Wick franchise has given us ‘gun fu’, ‘book fu’ and even ‘horse fu’, Bullet Train embraces the use of everyday objects in its fight scenes – expect variations on ‘kettle fu’, ‘laptop fu’, and even ‘water bottle fu’.
There was also room to mix things up in the carriages themselves: there are 16 in total, including one dedicated to a fictional anime character, ‘Momomon’, and, of course, the quiet carriage. “That adds a whole other flexibility to the choreography,” says Leach. Brian Tyree Henry, who plays English hitman and Thomas The Tank Engine lover Lemon, enjoyed shooting that one in particular. “The fact that I have a whole fight with Brad Pitt on a quiet car — that we are trying to be silent while bashing each other’s faces — that was so fun to play,” he says. “You’re like a kid in a candy store.”
That blend of intricate hand-to-hand combat with a more comedic tone brings one of cinema’s most prolific martial arts masters to mind: “It straddles a line of badass action, but with a humorous element infused in it,” Pitt explains. “Almost like Jackie Chan. I feel like it is in that slipstream.” Director Leitch agrees: “Jackie is always an inspiration.” Just as Chan is renowned for doing the majority of his own stunts, so did Pitt on Bullet Train, which undoubtedly led to some bruises. “You always get banged up a little bit,” Pitt says. “We’re padded pretty well. Some of the tougher guys go without pads. I am not that guy.”
Read more. This interview also involves Brad. Empire issue august is out now.
Damien Quintard Takes Us Inside The Reopening Of Studio Miraval
A few weeks ago, it was announced that Brad Pitt was going to reopen recording studio Studio Miraval on his winery, Chateau Miraval, in the South of France. At first glance, this may appear to some like another celebrity vanity project. However, this is anything but that.
In case you’re unaware, Studio Miraval (now called Miraval Studios) is one of the legendary studios in music history. Albums like the Rolling Stones’ Exile on Main Street and Pink Floyd’s The Wall were recorded there. Studio Miraval has also hosted sessions by luminaries like The Cure, Sting, Sade and The Cranberries. Not too shabby.
Chris Cuffaro mentions young Brad
Mention of young Brad in a Newsweek interview with known photographer Chris Cuffaro.
“Young talent who think they’re a star because they’ve filmed one TV show—those people aren’t famous now. I shot Brad Pitt before Thelma and Louise came out. We hung out at my apartment all day laughing and took some pictures. He was the nicest guy in the world. I can see, to this day, why he is where he is. He had a solid foundation and he was a good guy. It was the same with George Clooney and Jennifer Aniston. I could drop names for days of people I shot before they became big stars and names of people who didn’t make it. The difference between them is that the successful ones were genuinely good people to begin with. George Clooney and I used to play basketball, and he didn’t take himself too seriously. He just wanted to be an actor. I understand why he’s become a director, a producer and everything else, because he also has a great work ethic.”
Architectural Digest
There is truly something for everyone in the new documentary Unity Temple. The film tells the story of the craftspeople and historians behind the extensive $25 million restoration (unveiled in 2017) of the Frank Lloyd Wright–designed Unity Temple in Oak Park, Illinois, with narration by none other than Hollywood heartthrob and architecture buff Brad Pitt.
It’s no secret that Pitt has long been enthralled by the built world. In 2006, he and his now ex-wife Angelina Jolie arranged for a private tour of Wright’s famous Fallingwater house in Mill Run, Pennsylvania. In 2008, Pitt’s Make It Right Foundation built dozens of eco-friendly homes in New Orleans’s Lower Ninth Ward in concert with starchitects like Sir David Adjaye—though years later the project faced a class action lawsuit.
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Pitt Previews His New Limited Release Rosé Champagne
There’s a reason to celebrate at Miraval this week!
The French chateau, whose owners Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have produced award-winning rosés since 2012, has finally unveiled its next release — and PEOPLE has all the exclusive details and photos.
First announced in January, the limited release rosé Champagne, called Fleur de Miraval, will debut in U.S. markets on Oct. 15.
“For me,” Pitt explains to PEOPLE, “Champagne conjures up feelings of celebration, quality, prestige, and luxury. But rosé Champagne is still relatively unknown. Backed by our success with Miraval in Provence, I wanted us to try to create the defining brand of rosé Champagne, focusing all our efforts on just this one color.”
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BP Gallery Update
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PS. We also added the Tempus interview (July 2020). Thanks also Shann!
AKIpress.com exclusive interview
How did you train, or what did you have to do before you knew you were gonna be in the roof of that house and had to take your shirt off?
Uh… uh…
Uh, no. You know, I look at films like- well, depends on what character you’re doing. But in there, you know, I’m playing a stunt man so I can’t… I gotta be on the better end of shape. So, you know, I try to eat right during the film. Get some exercise. And, that’s that.
That’s that. And then when it’s off, then it’s Shake Shack and pizzas. (laughter)
Hollywood is teeming with thousands of stuntmen, many of them also dreaming of becoming a star someday. So, in that context, in portraying Cliff, THE STUNTMAN, what are your own reflections on fame, how fleeting it can be, and how, for every Cliff, there are hundreds who are struggling to make it in Hollywood?
SBFF Transcript
The 35th Santa Barbara International Film Festival (SBIFF) presented its highest honor, the Maltin Modern Master Award (established in 1995, and then re-named to recognize long-time renowned film critic Leonard Maltin in 2015), to actor Brad Pitt at the Arlington Theatre on January 21st. The award was created to honor an individual who has enriched our culture through accomplishments in the motion picture industry, and the evening was a celebration of his work, not only in his two most recent films, Once Upon A Time in Hollywood and Ad Astra, but also his entire film catalog.
During the two-hour presentation, featuring clips from many of Pitt’s films, and discussion with Maltin, himself, the actor talked in-depth about everything from his first Oscar nomination, his major in college, growing up as a film buff, his first impression of a professional film set, his unsuccessful first attempt at getting a SAG card, when he felt like he was actually a professional working actor, the filmmakers that have made the greatest impact on him, one of the film roles that he passed on, and a common theme in many of his roles.
