Brad Pitt: 'Moneyball,' Life And 'The Stalkerazzi'
GROSS: So Bennett Miller, who directed "Moneyball," did a documentary called "The Cruise," and he directed "Capote," the biopic about Truman Capote that Philip Seymour Hoffman starred in. Of course, Hoffman is also in "Moneyball."
But did he give you any advice about playing a real person since he'd been through that one time before?
PITT: No, we - you know, we talked more about getting the book to the screen. Listen, Bennett Miller was a great asset to this film, and the thing that's usually overlooked is the tone of the film, and what you see up on the screen is completely his creation. And I just think he's one of the greats.
But we talk to - you know, the book is very dense. It's dealing with economics and sabermetrics and not necessarily edge-of-your-seat kind of stuff. At the same time, there's this story of underdogs and of value and people getting a chance who have been overlooked and what is our own idea of success and failure? And he was able to bring these human elements to the front of the story.
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GROSS: So you go to L.A. and then what? You get there, then what?
PITT: I get there with - you know, like the cliche goes, with my beat-up Datsun, and I had $275 to my savings, and I landed in Burbank. And I got the paper, and I found some extra agencies. And by, you know, the end of that week, I was - I paid my 25 bucks to join up, and I was an extra.
GROSS: In what?
PITT: It started out industrial films and commercials, and then, you know, you work your way up. And I guess the biggest film I had was - I had, that's a funny way to put it - but was "Less Than Zero."
GROSS: You were an extra in "Less Than Zero"? That must have been fun.
PITT: And I enjoyed it, man. I just - oh, it was so much fun. I just wanted to be around film. Suddenly, I was on film, and I was on a set and watching how the guys - you know, how they do it.
GROSS: So what films do you love that made you want to be in films yourself?
PITT: I loved "Saturday Night Fever" when I was a kid. I couldn't believe people talked that way. It was just a whole other culture I didn't understand. I snuck into it. It was an R-rated film. And so it holds a special place.
I remember - I mean, it's still the films on my playlist today, would be "Dog Day Afternoon," "Cuckoo's Nest" was a huge one with me. When I - I would say "Strangelove" always cracks me up and "Apocalypse Now," another favorite.
GROSS: So you start getting in films and you get very famous. What was the strangest thing early on about actually - not only being successful, but being famous?
PITT: The strangest thing is suddenly being looked at and watched and judged, in a way. I mean, I don't know what I was expecting. You know, you're putting yourself in that ring. I just didn't think that far ahead. And I found it very discombobulating. I was very uncomfortable with the focus.
GROSS: So did that make you want to be in the limelight any more or less?
PITT: No, I still wanted to crack this film thing I was in, but I was committed. You know, I think one of the lovely things about where I grew up is it's considered great hubris to talk about yourself, and yet, you know, as we sit here now, it's part of the business, and I find it actually interesting and cathartic in some way.
But at that time, I was - I mean, a good 10 years I wrestled with it.
GROSS: About how much to share about yourself and...
PITT: Yeah, I was very, very protective.
GROSS: Brad Pitt will be back in the second half of the show. He stars in the new film "Moneyball." I'm Terry Gross, and this is FRESH AIR.
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GROSS: This is FRESH AIR. I'm Terry Gross. Let's get back to our interview with Brad Pitt. He's starring in the new film "Moneyball," based on Michael Lewis's book about Billy Beane, the manager of the Oakland A's. When we left off, we were talking about becoming famous and being in the limelight.
So you live in a world where money is so weird. I mean like you were able to sell the first pictures of the first child that Angelina Jolie gave birth to for $4.1 million to People magazine. And then you, you know, you donated the money to charity, put the money to good use. But that's just like so weird, to get that amount of money for a photograph.
PITT: It's bizarre.
GROSS: It's crazy. It's like values gone nuts. So...
PITT: It's bizarre.
GROSS: Yeah. (Unintelligible) what you're trying to do is like at least try to take the values gone nuts and put it to good use, put the money to good use.
PITT: Well, that was my feeling. I mean I know some of these guys who are in that stalkerazzi world, and you really have to separate them from the paparazzi in our industry. This is another breed. And they have their heroes who got the big scandalous shot, and which just promotes more of that. So going into this we knew - listen, it's a very strange thing to be selling photos of something that's very intimate and personal and those of which you want to protect. We knew from, you know, we had to plan an escape every day to get out of the house - kind of a "Mission Impossible" with decoys, and that's the life we live in, and that's the one we asked for. So - but we knew there was a bounty on our head and a huge bounty. And we understand the lengths they go to - I don't think people do - to get that shot. So we figured, let's cut it off from the beginning, and instead of that money going to people I do not respect, that we would make some good out of it. And there's the nice thing about our situation.
GROSS: So did it work? Did it head people off at the pass? Did it prevent you from being stalked in the way that you feared you would?
PITT: Yeah. It took that initial - the initial hit. Absolutely.
GROSS: So at least nobody else could claim that they had the first photo.
PITT: Right. And that's where the big bounty is.
GROSS: That's where the big bucks are. Right.
PITT: Yeah.
GROSS: You know, I interview people for a living, that's how I spend my time, you know, and I care what my guests have to say, I'm really interested in hearing how the choices people make when they're living their lives, why they do what they do, how they do what they do. At the same time I don't really understand why everybody needs to know the intimate details of your personal life or your children's lives. And I imagine you don't really understand that either. But it's something you probably have to think about a whole lot more than I do. Do you have any answers to that? Like why do people feel that they need to know or that they're entitled to know personal details like that?
PITT: Well, we - I actually - we, you know, I divorce myself of it. I don't think about it, and as I say, enjoy life much more.
GROSS: Mm-hmm.
PITT: I recall - you know, there's a - I do know there's a positive side to it. Let me put it this way and let's see if it relates.
GROSS: Mm-hmm.
PITT: I know when I had seen people I respected when I was first starting, just that brush with them meant something to me, like my day felt special.
GROSS: Are there actors you felt that way about when you first met them?
PITT: Absolutely. You know, again, just being around it. And like being on the set of "Less Than Zero," I watched Robert Downey Jr. go by, I thought, yeah, that's all right.
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GROSS: One of the things that you've been doing through your foundation is architectural work in New Orleans in one parish where there's a lot of destruction from Hurricane Katrina. Are you still involved with that? Is that still an ongoing project?
PITT: Mm-hmm. Yeah, we're still going and it's exceeded my expectations. We're over halfway through. We've made a commitment for 150, to get 150 families back in homes there, and it became an important statement for social justice, and I'm very happy and I'm even more happy to see the families return and make it their own and for their homes to be working for them as well as they are.
I know in like the Lower - we take the Lower Ninth Ward, and I know this is an area that's been historically marginalized. And for suddenly someone to come along, not just me, but I mean this whole thing, the money was raised from the kindness of strangers, for someone to come along and just to help them up, just give them a break, changes one's outlook on the world. And it's a happy place. And to be able to pass that along, to know that you've been fortunate and know the effect you have, I mean seeing what we've seen in our travels I would just, I see no other way. What I'm saying is, I'm complacent if I don't pass that on.
GROSS: Mm-hmm. You've said that you and Angelina Jolie will not marry until it's legal for all Americans to marry. And it's a statement in support of marriage equality. So was that always your reason for not marrying...
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GROSS: ...or was that - like in other words, like if gay marriage is made legal in the United States, does that mean you're going to marry tomorrow?
PITT: That's a fair question. We're getting a lot of heat from the kids, I must say, so I hope we can hold out. But I I agree with the statement. I just I think it's absolute out and out discrimination. I don't understand how you can dictate that, you can put that you can confine someone else that way. It's, you know, it's life, liberty and happiness, and that's the country we live in and let's support that.
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GROSS: So how many people walk up to you and say the first rule of fight club is not to talk about fight club?
PITT: No one.
GROSS: Really?
PITT: No.
GROSS: It's one of those like famous line, which I think I just got a couple of words wrong in, but nevertheless.
PITT: Sometimes like I'll get Tyler Durden. Heh, heh, heh, heh.
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PITT: But nothing much more than that.
GROSS: What do people say when they meet you?
PITT: I'm just afraid, you know, people are doing things to my soup or, you know, at the restaurant or something.
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GROSS: Do you have to worry about that?
PITT: I try not to.
GROSS: Well, thank you so much for talking with us.
PITT: Terry, I thank you very much.
