Brad Pitt took a few minutes with WWNO reporter Eileen Fleming to review the status of the Make it Right project he founded in the Lower Ninth Ward. Before hosting a fundraiser, he spent some time in the neighborhood.

For my meeting with Brad Pitt for a 15-minute interview, I drove as instructed to a nearly complete home in the Make it Right neighborhood in Lower Ninth Ward. Security allowed me in, and I was shown to an empty back room where Brad Pitt was sitting by himself, behind a bare, simple fold-out table.

Q. “It is nice and echo-y in here because this is a brand new…

A. “ They’re so air tight that, I mean, you can’t hear – Claiborne’s right there and you cannot, you can’t hear it.”

Read more. Notice the interview comes in two great parts. You can also download and listen to the audio version of both interviews, go check the BP Media archive for that!

Talk show host Ellen DeGeneres and Brad Pitt walk through the lower ninth ward in New Orleans and discuss the progress of “Make It Right” airing on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” on Tuesday, March 20th. Brad on New Orleans and “Make it Right”

Ellen: Let me start from the beginning. Lets start from when you first fell in love with New Orleans. Where were you? What year?

Brad: Early 90’s and it was a bit of a blur because New Orleans will do that to you.

Ellen: I don’t remember last night.

Brad: Yeah I understand. I fell in love with the place. The people. The music. It’s in the air. It’s something you can’t describe on camera.

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Every time he crosses the Claiborne Avenue bridge heading east across the New Orleans Industrial Canal, actor Brad Pitt gets a lump in his throat.

From that vantage point, he can look down on a section of the city’s Lower Ninth Ward that is ground zero for “Make It Right,” a home rebuilding initiative Pitt launched to help people whose homes were destroyed by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, which killed 1,500 people and devastated the historic Southern city.

“Each time I come back to New Orleans and drive over that bridge, I get this swell of joy,” Pitt told Reuters, his eyes going watery. “It’s means a lot to me to watch that neighborhood take shape.”

Pitt and his movie star partner, Angelina Jolie, own a house in the city’s French Quarter, and they visit the city regularly with their six children.

The actor shares his feelings about the city and its recovery with a few thousand people on Saturday evening, as he and comedian Ellen DeGeneres, a New Orleans native, host the Make It Right Foundation’s biggest fundraiser at a New Orleans hotel.

Billed as “A Night to Make It Right,” the star-studded, sold-out gala is expected to draw 1,200 guests who paid between $1,000 and $2,500 to attend a dinner prepared by New Orleans celebrity chefs John Besh and Emeril Lagasse, and a concert featuring musical stars Rihanna, Sheryl Crow, Seal and Dr. John.

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Since Hurricane Katrina, Brad Pitt’s charity has been focused on building sustainable homes in New Orleans. But, now the generous star is branching out to give some much-needed attention to his home state.

The Make It Right organization pledged $2.3 million to turn the closed-down 103-year-old Bancroft School in Kansas City, Mo., into a housing complex and community center. It’ll come complete with apartments, a gym and a healthcare center, Fox4KC.com reports.

“The good news today is that we are now going to make it right,” Congressman Emanuel Cleaver II told the news source.

Cleaver announced the building project Monday, which will cost $14 million. Its funding will be generated from federal tax credits, low income housing tax credits, and Pitt’s organization.

The work is part of Kansas City’s Green Impact Zone, which works to gather resources to make a major impact in communities, one big project at a time.

“This is just the start,” Cleaver told Fox4KC.com, “but it is a beautiful start.”

Although Pitt did not make it to the announcement of the project, he is expected to be there at its finish in the spring of 2013, Fox4KC.com reports.

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