Moneyball Brad Pitt is having a remarkable year. First he plays the dark side of the American Dream in Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life, which won the Palme d’Or in Cannes; now he switch-hits to the sunny side in Moneyball‘s amazing-but-true story of Billy Beane, a general manager who changed the face of major league baseball. Here, after a string of quirky, character roles, Pitt finally unleashes his natural wit and charisma in a role that soaks it up—he has the lustre of a latter-day Warren Beatty or Robert Redford. A movie star hitting his prime. But what makes the film really click is the hilarious odd-couple chemistry between Pitt and the deadpan Jonah Hill, cast as the nerdy Yale economist hired by Beane to build a winning strategy by number-crunching. Directed by Capote‘s Bennett Miller, this is one helluva good sports movie. Expect Pitt get an Oscar nomination.
Josan
Parade Magazine Alert
Parade magazine comes with Sunday’s print edition of The Journal Gazette. Here is what is featured this week:
Inside Brad Pitt’s world: With films, family and finding ways to give back, Brad Pitt is on a winning streak. He tells Parade what he’s learned about life from his kids and from his own dad.
Read more/discuss. Thanks Gabriella.
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George Clooney Says He’s Still ‘Upset’ About Losing ‘Thelma & Louise’ Role to Brad Pitt
During a conversation moderated by THR chief film critic Todd McCarthy, the “Ides of March” actor-director also reveals his thoughts on being passed over for “Sideways” and other movies.
It’s hard to imagine that George Clooney doesn’t have the pick of almost any role he wants to play these days, but that wasn’t always the case.
The actor-director, who recently was the subject of a tribute at the Telluride Film Festival, participated in a Q&A discussion moderated by The Hollywood Reporter chief film critic Todd McCarthy during which he quipped that he’s still not happy about losing out on a role in 1991’s Thelma & Louise to Brad Pitt.
In the movie, Pitt plays J.D., a robber out on parole who steals money from the title characters (Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis). The part, of course, would become Pitt’s breakout role.
In a lighthearted moment during the Q&A at Telluride, Clooney told McCarthy that he was still “upset” about losing out the role to Pitt, who would become his co-star in the Ocean’s Eleven movies.
“The funniest thing is, I didn’t watch that movie for a long time,” the actor-director said. “I was really stuck doing a lot of bad TV at that time. And I had auditioned and auditioned, and it got right down to Brad and I, and he got it. And I just couldn’t watch that movie for a couple of years.”
But now, he said, he realizes the part went to the right actor.
“When I saw it, I thought actually that was the right choice,” he added. “He was really good in it, and I would have f—ed it up somehow.”
‘Moneyball’: Billy Beane Talks Brad Pitt, ‘Surreal’ Movie Experience At Toronto Premiere
With a line bursting with stargazers snaking all the way around a massive public square, the Toronto International Film Fest premiere of “Moneyball” was a raucous scene that turned into a kind of makeshift victory parade for Brad Pitt, the baseball film’s magnetic leading man. That the film celebrates a true story — and features Pitt playing an actual person — seemed to have been forgotten for the moment, such was the euphoria of the crowd’s feting of the actor.
So, in slipped Billy Beane, the trailblazing Oakland Athletics general manager whom Pitt portrays in the film, virtually unnoticed ahead of the “Moneyball” cast. Luckily, HuffPost was able to flag him down to talk about the movie, his experience during its production and what he thought about Pitt’s portrayal.
HuffPost: Have you seen the film yet? What did you think?
Beane: It was good. I got used to it after a while. It was surreal. I was a little desensitized after the third of fourth showing. It’s good.
Brad Pitt aims for home run with “Moneyball”
Brad Pitt has turned to the insular world of baseball economics for his latest movie and yet the Hollywood heavyweight is a relative rookie in terms of obsessing over one of America’s great pastimes.
The A-list actor is one of the top draws this week at the Toronto International Film Festival for the launch of his new drama, “Moneyball.” He plays Billy Beane, the real-life general manager of Major League Baseball’s Oakland A’s, who is famed for reinventing the game by running a competitive team in a cost-effective way.
Pitt told Reuters that he learned to appreciate the nuances and complexities of the game while making the movie, helped by several meetings with 49-year-old Beane, but he is not your typical baseball fanatic.
“It’s shameful how little I know about baseball, but what I know about it, I got — it was a pop fly in the fourth grade — 18 stitches,” he told Reuters, referring to getting hit by ball when he was just a kid, opening a flesh wound.
“I find it really tranquil when it is on (TV) in the background now…There is a reason why it has become our national pastime. It’s a team sport yet at the same time it is an individual battle.”
