WTJ: How did Brad Pitt become involved ? I presume the fact that he has a new movie ‘Inglourious Basterds’ coming out helped.
SD: In mid-May, we got a call from one of Brad’s reps from Weinstein (yes, in reference to Inglourious Basterds) saying that Brad was interested in collaborating with us on a project. Turns out he had really liked the Mystery Issue (May 2009) we had done with J.J. Abrams and wanted to see if we had any stories that would be relevant. Why yes, we did! So Nancy Miller, our Hollywood editor, replied with word of our gestating etiquette package. We pitched the notion of Brad playing the “bastard/basterd”, clueless about modern etiquette as a way to illustrate a few digital do’s and don’ts.
A couple of days later, I got the call of a lifetime; I was sitting at my desk and his assistant rang and said “I’ve got Brad on the line for you.” And it was really him. Very cool guy. Turns out he’s a huge fan of the magazine and was completely open to the bastard idea. We talked for about 20 minutes, brainstormed a bunch of scenarios and agreed to do a shoot the following week.
Read more. Thanks Intothegrinder.
• x01 On set: Wired photoshoot.