The Tonight Show – February 01, 2001

LENO:
Thanks for coming, how you doing?

PITT:
Yeah, I am doing great Jay, thanks for having me

LENO:
I like that suit

PITT:
Thank you very much

LENO:
See you look good in a suit, I… I look and I realize that is half of my suit…

PITT:
How so?

LENO:
Well I mean mine has twice as much material. Yea see, it looks good on you, I don’t know… Hey great job in Snatch! We’ve been talking about this movie. It’s a little English… have you seen it? Again this is something I admire, when big stars do these little low budget movies. And it’s this little quiet cult hit, for those who haven’t seen it, tell people what it’s about

PITT:
Uhm, it’s this crazy cast of characters that are all chasing this giant diamond basically. If you’ve seen Lock, stock and two smoking barrels, it’s got this great energy in it. The way he weaves all these characters together and it’s really, pretty genius, I have to say

LENO:
And you play?

PITT:
I play One Punch Mickey “Audience is laughing” Yeah, I know. I’m
not a fighter

LENO:
An Irish gypsy, right?

PITT:
An Irish gypsy, fighter, bare-knuckle fighter, yeah

LENO:
Now, how did you get this film? I mean this is a little film; it’s a small movie, obviously

PITT:
I’d seen the first one, so I went knocking on his door

LENO:
You called up?

PITT:
I called and said, you know, “loved it, got anything in the next one?” and he told me about this Irish… uh fighter guy…

LENO:
Whoa, hold up, back up for a minute

PITT:
Yeah…

LENO:
“Dong, phone, Yea hi it’s Brad Pitt, I’d like…” “Yea right”, how does that happen?

PITT:
I think he gets a warning first

LENO:
Oh, he gets a warning, oh that you’re going to call

PITT:
Yeah, that it’s legit. Yea, but he’s very cool about it, he didn’t want to… only if it fit…

LENO:
Right…

PITT:
I think the original character was suppose to be about 300 pounds, but somehow it still fit, yea, he just made it work…

LENO:
Now, how does that work, cause again, I know this town a little bit, obviously you’re a big star, and I’m not trying to embarrass ya. I know you get a lot of money for movies, this is not a big movie, this budget is probably less than what you get… Do all agents…

PITT:
I don’t get a lot… Well, I do, but I always end up taking cuts. They always build me as this guy, but I always take cuts cause I want to work with so and I want to do this and…

LENO:
Do you have like, agents that go “No, no, you can’t do that, it’s bad to be in a little…” Cause there are so many…

PITT:
No they’ve given up on that; they know me well enough by now

LENO:
Yeah, see that’s what I admire

PITT:
Thanks Jay

LENO:
I like that you just do what you like to do, that’s what makes it work. Now the language that ya talk, it’s a combination of what?

PITT:
Hell if I know, that accent is really “The forty foot fade away with 3 seconds on the clock”. I didn’t know what I was going to do, I was more worried about the fighting, cause I’m not a fighter. I don’t like to hit people, I don’t like to get hit. No I am not being nice. What, are you kidding me? It hurts! I don’t like it. I want no part of it.

LENO:
Have you ever been decked in real life?

PITT:
Yeah it’s been back in 1932 or… I ended up squeezing the guy’s satchel just to get him off me

LENO:
Really… that might’ve encouraged him

PITT:
Yea…yea…it was in Missouri

LENO:
Can you speak… or… did you have lines or did you just make up…

PITT:
No those were legit lines yea. Well I had a head start. I had done an Irish accent before, which was a northern accent which is… first you start with the melody [doing accent], it all goes up, it’s all very lyrical like this, you’re a stupid man Mr. Burke, you’re a very attractive man Mr. Leno, it’s a lovely suit Mr. Leno

LENO:
Just don’t go grabbing my satchel…

[Audience laughing]

LENO:
But you looked different, did you have something? Did you do something different with your face in this movie?

PITT:
Just a little bridge on the nose, cause I got kind of this little cute, pixy
nose that says; This guy doesn’t find’ so…

LENO:
Yeah, cause it looked like… I couldn’t figure out what it was

PITT:
Yeah, we just tried to mess it up a little bit

LENO:
Now you had the fake tattoo, did those come off in the shower?

PITT:
Yeah, they were suppose to, they started with henna and then we found out someone got henna poisoning, they were suppose to last for the end entire shoot. My section was two weeks. And so we went to this other tattooing. That was suppose to last for 4-5 days, but it only ended up lasting about a day. And it was 5 hours to apply all these tattoos. Which means you got to get up butt early in the morning, it’s not fun, before you start a full day of shooting so… Can I talk more with my hands? [Moving hands everywhere ]

LENO:
I’m trying to figure out what “Butt early” is…

PITT:
Butt early is the crack of dawn

LENO:
Let’s show people what we’re talking about, cause I really love
this movie, it really made me laugh

[TV comes up]

LENO:
Oh here we are, you are trying to get these guys to get you a trailer or a caravan

PITT:
That’s right, they are trying to get me to do this fight for them and
I’m saying; yea if you do something for me…

LENO:
All right see if you can understand

[Shows clip from Snatch]

PITT:
I got to give credit to Benicio. Yea. I really took… It was 3 days for us to start this thing, I was in a panic. I couldn’t figure out what I was suppose to do and drawn from Benicio Del Toro. Have you guys seen Traffic yet? Woo this guy just makes me want to want to work every time I see him. But, remember him in The Usual Suspects? He was kind of the first guy that made it okay to be incomprehensible and so, borrowing from him, yea we went with this and it really worked out for us

LENO:
It worked out great, let’s take a break, when we come back I want to ask you about the marriage and all that. Be right back!

[commerical break]

LENO:
Welcome back. Talking to Brad Pitt, the movie is Snatch. You and Jennifer Aniston
got married last year

PITT:
Yes, we did

LENO:
That looked like it was a lot of fun

PITT:
It was fantastic

LENO:
Now, how did you keep the press away? You guys did a pretty good job

PITT:
Well there is two bits to that, cause I got a little crazy with it… the paparazzi and I have this big game going on. And I started getting a little carried away with it and Jen smacked me around and remembered why we were there. And we wanted to do the thing outside, we wanted to write our own ceremony and we kind of gave up on it all. And something happened, at the very last minute when the ceremony started, the press backed off and I really have to thank them, cause they were, they were just so cool with this and they let us have our moment and they let us have what turned out to be a highlight of my life

LENO:
Wow

PITT:
Yeah

LENO:
That’s pretty good. But now, you’ve been out the country a lot this year. Is that tricky? Being a newly wed, being out the country a lot

PITT:
Yeah, it’s tough, distance is a beast, it’s a beast

LENO:
So what do you do?

PITT:
Well fortunately Friends, you can find Friends in pretty much any country, there are a lot of phone bills. I get to see Friends in Spanish or German [Sings a bit of the Friends theme in German] It’s kind of that or… so I get a little taste… Or we also have web cams…

LENO:
Is that a little taste? Sitting around Friends?

PITT:
That’s a little taste, well it makes me happy…

LENO:
And you have a web cam?

PITT:
We have web cams yea, you know, with the little email vibe. Yea I’m new to this game but technology rocks! Uhm but we have these web cams and you can’t see movement really, it’s like every 6 seconds it takes a picture. Yea it’s kind of frozen like that. You’ll be talking and… [Doing hysterically funny face] … It’ll freeze like this and you’ll say something like. You’ll be saying something else and you’ll laugh… [Doing another hysterical face]… but you still, you know, you just. She gets to see what room I am stuck in and I get to see her… it’s great

LENO:
It seems like you two should be together

PITT:
We’re doing our best

LENO:
Well I know you grew up in Missouri, do you get back home very often?

PITT:
Uhm once or twice a year, you know, the clan comes out

LENO:
Is it crazy to go back and see the high school guys?

PITT:
Not really, I mean my folks are on the river so usually when we get to go away, it’s time off so we just kind of hang out with them, the family

LENO:
Now what did they think when you went into showbiz, cause I come from a small town also and it’s like you know, were they worried for you? Did they think: Oh my God!?

PITT:
Yeah. Well, it’s not an option, acting in Missouri, so when I moved out here, well I lied, I didn’t tell them, I told them I was going to go to The Art Center in Pasadena which is a good design school… Uhm… they got hit pretty quick

LENO:
Yeah, well that’s cool. Now tell us about The Mexican. This is you and
is it Julia Roberts?

PITT:
Julia Roberts, James Gandolfini from The Sopranos

LENO:
Oh that’s a good… yeah, I love him too, he is great too

PITT:
Yeah. I just want to know, why do we have to wait so long for the next season? What is going on?

LENO:
I know, with The Sopranos you want to, you want to, I think it’s going
to start next month

PITT:
Oh I’ll shut up then…

LENO:
So what is this one about?

PITT:
This one is about…this is…Oh God what is it about? Uhm, you know. I find it really funny, couples, you know, fight, fight a lot, cause it’s always about nothing, it’s about the silliest of things. We catch this couple at that moment in their life. When they are just not getting along, nothings working and he’s required, she’s been hanging out for him. He’s been, he’s required to do this one last job, as many movies go, and she’s saying; I’m not having it, I’m going on with my life’ And from there…

LENO:
Well we have a clip, let’s take a look; this is a scene from The Mexican

[Shows clip from The Mexican]

LENO:
Brad, thanks for coming

PITT:
Oh great…

LENO:
Can you come back and see us again sometime?

PITT:
Yeah, sure love to…

LENO:
Hey do you have a favorite in the “Jay Walk All Stars”?

[The Jay Walk All Stars is a skit regularly done on the show. Jay Leno goes
out on the streets and asks people questions. Every few months, he brings the most unintelligent three on to the show for a showdown. It’s very funny because these people are complete morons.]

PITT:
Uh, yeah, the gastrocious major

LENO:
Oh that one, I know the one you mean, that is Lisa

PITT:
Lisa….go Lisa

[After a commerical break, Beck performs]

LENO:
Welcome back good to see you again. [Speaking to both Brad and Beck]Aren’t
you guys like neighbors?

PITT:
Yes pretty much so, no block parties yet, but working on it, little barbeque
maybe…