CNN – May 11, 2004

Movie heartthrob Brad Pitt appears in his first starring role in three years in “Troy,” opening nationwide
on Friday.

He plays the warrior Achilles in the adaptation of Homer’s epic on the Trojan War.

Not only is “Troy” one of the year’s most anticipated films, but it cost more than $200 million — one of the most expensive ever made.

CNN anchor Bill Hemmer spoke to Pitt recently, asking him if he felt the need to have a costly epic like this film on his resume.

PITT: It came along at a good time. I was off for a couple of years and I was ready to take on something really difficult and arduous. But I don’t know about stacking a resume. I just kind of go where the next one…

HEMMER: I’ve got to think, you probably get so many scripts put in front of you in California. Why did you pick this one?

PITT: I just — it’s one of the great stories in literature. And I thought the themes really resonated today, whether that was my projection or Homer’s intentions. It didn’t seem like we had come very far.

HEMMER: There is a lot in this film.

PITT: Yes.

HEMMER: Two hundred million dollars. Do you feel this certain pressure when you’re putting that much money into a film, trying to make it back at the box office?

PITT: You know, I try not to. Listen, the truth is, no, I don’t really think that way. And I should think a little more that way.

HEMMER: Somebody, I think, once said that acting is 80 percent running. [You] have to look good physically when you’re doing things.

PITT: That’s funny.

HEMMER: Have you thought about that, and do you agree with that?

PITT: No, I don’t.

HEMMER: No?

PITT: Well, it depends on the tone of the film and what the film is about. But so much of it requires the research going in. This one was all about preparation and research.

HEMMER: Peter O’Toole [is] really involved in one of the first major epic films, “Lawrence of Arabia.”

PITT: That’s right.

HEMMER: He cut the cloth.

PITT: Yes.

HEMMER: What was it like working with him?

PITT: I don’t know that I can do it justice, but for me it was a pinnacle. [He is] very eloquent and very powerful, and comes from a training that I haven’t had, [one] I don’t completely understand. But he’s just one of the masters and a delight to be
around.

HEMMER: Your wife [Jennifer Aniston] made a joke, I think, on “Saturday Night Live” about starting a family together. Is it time now to expand the Pitt-Aniston household?

PITT: I think it’s time. I think it’s time. We’ve been in rehearsals long enough.