Showing posts with label USA Today. Show all posts
Showing posts with label USA Today. Show all posts

Thursday, December 12, 2024




Patrick Ryan
USA TODAY

NEW YORK − For Angelina Jolie, the hardest part of playing opera star Maria Callas wasn’t the seven months of singing lessons.

Rather, it was the "dog training," she jokes, seated on the couch of an Upper East Side hotel with "Maria" director Pablo Larraín. The biopic was shot in Budapest, and her canine co-stars often responded only to Hungarian. As a result, Jolie spent ample time behind the scenes learning commands and giving treats to the movie’s loyal lapdogs.

"There's a lot that's deeply felt and very heavy about the film, but there's also a great amount of charm," Jolie says. "It was very important to capture her relationships, her home life, her eccentricities – and her poodles."

"Maria" (streaming now on Netflix) dramatizes the reclusive final days of Callas, who died of a heart attack in 1977 at age 53. Her story unfolds in a series of flashbacks and interviews with a documentary crew as the American-Greek soprano reflects on her critics, romances and art.

The movie marks the end of a trilogy for Larraín, who helped steer Natalie Portman ("Jackie") and Kristen Stewart ("Spencer") to Oscar nominations for their respective biopics of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Princess Diana. Awards experts resoundingly predict that Jolie, 49, will pick up her third Oscar nomination for the performance, after winning best supporting actress in 2000 for "Girl, Interrupted."

For Larraín, the project stems from a lifelong love of opera: "Growing up, my mother would take me to the opera twice a month," he says. Callas always strived to make opera more accessible to the masses, and Larraín hopes to achieve the same with this film. "We're talking about something that sounds elitist, but it shouldn't be."

Callas' own mother, Litsa (played by Lydia Koniordou), loomed large throughout her life. Because she wanted a son, Litsa resented her daughter from birth. And when she discovered Callas could sing at age 5, she pushed her into performing professionally.

"My life was so formed by the love of my mother," Jolie says. "Maria had a mother who was really quite horrible to her, so her relationship to her art was almost maybe the opposite of mine. She was forced to succeed; she was put under pressure that she wasn't good enough; she was criticized heavily by her mom. And I think that affected her her whole life, in how she felt unlovable and that if she wasn't perfect, she didn't have worth."

Jolie is the daughter of actors Jon Voight and Marcheline Bertrand, who gave up acting after having children. Bertrand died of breast and ovarian cancer in 2007 at age 56; through "Maria," Jolie hopes to honor her mother.

"She really wanted to be an actor; she really studied it and loved theater," Jolie says. "Part of the reason I became an actor was to work and help us pay bills when I was young, but also because it just made her so happy. She would always write letters to my characters. I would do the most ridiculous music video or something, and she would still write to them.

"She instilled in me creativity and communicating through character," Jolie says. Working in Hollywood, so much of "the focus is on the public life. But really, the reason we all do it is the study of the human condition; the exploration of what it is to feel different things or be alive."

Jolie immersed herself in all things Callas before shooting "Maria": taking Italian classes and closely studying footage of the icon so she could capture her graceful posture and lyrical speaking voice. In the film, the actress' opera vocals are blended with real recordings of Callas.

"When I first started singing, I was faint after almost every time I sang," Jolie says. "I just couldn't quite grasp that my body wasn't strong enough. It's like an athlete – it's one of the most physically demanding things you can do."

Larraín compares the experience of watching Callas perform to seeing Olympic gymnast Simone Biles: the awe of someone achieving something "so extraordinary," and the intense dedication that it requires. But he's also moved by the more emotional themes of the film: how Callas learns to set aside others' expectations and sing purely for herself.

"It's very related: this idea of being gentler with yourself and not listening to what others think," Larraín says. "In general, I care what my kids think about me. Stay close to the people who love you."

"I feel the same," adds Jolie, who shares six children with ex-husband Brad Pitt. She's reminded again of her own mother, who "used to keep my movies on the television all the time just to hear my voice in the house. Isn’t that sweet? Only the nice ones, though – 'Maria' would have made her too sad. I don’t think she’d like to see me die.

"But when you're young, you're like, 'Mom, turn it off!' Now I completely understand, because I'm that mom. My kids do anything and I watch it a thousand times; I put their pictures all over."

Earlier this year, Jolie won her first Tony Award for producing Broadway's winner for best musical, "The Outsiders," based on S.E. Hinton's coming-of-age classic about rival gangs. Her daughter Vivienne, 16, introduced her to the project after seeing an early workshop and is credited as a producer assistant.

"I think where I’m most like my mom is probably 'The Outsiders,' where my daughter felt connected to a piece of material and we just became a part of it together," Jolie says. "We got up early, went to the theater together, stayed until late – it was a real love of the work and being in that together. Viv likes theater; she likes the hard part.

"You've got to love the messy, tough work."












Thursday, September 19, 2019



See, this is the problem with (couple) viewing. It’s something you’ve got to say, ‘Honey, you're just going to have to catch up because I can't wait.'”
His honey -- the other lone gazelle, the only other person his personal security protects (and vice versa), the partner he has worked to be better for, the patron of an expanding bee conservation project, his loved one, Angelina.




Photo: MICHAEL MULLER

“I'm telling you, even someone who's hit the lottery has trouble sleeping sometimes,” Pitt says. “We all have our demons, the things we're wrestling with. We can spend a lifetime pushing them away until we have to deal with them at the very end in a very scary, frightening, ugly way. Or we can start acknowledging those. That's pretty much where I see it now.”

“Our fathers leave such an indelible mark on us and that relationship is so, so vital,” Pitt says. “My dad had always said he wanted to give us a better life than he had coming from great poverty, and he did that. That in turn makes me think the same way: What do I have to offer that's better than what I had for my kids?”

Figuring out how he can be a better dad is something that's always "in flux," the actor acknowledges.

"It's a constant moving target," he says

When Pitt watches himself in movies now, he can see his father’s moves and mannerisms, and “that’s amazing to me because I'm certainly not conscious of it.” It doesn’t bother him, though “when I first found myself reprimanding my kids in a way my parents reprimanded me, that's the time I got freaked out.”

As Pitt's “Ad Astra” character goes from Earth to the moon and all the way to Mars and Neptune – and deals with raging monkeys and lunar car chases along the way – there’s a cathartic scene in which the usually reserved Roy cries. And in that moment, Pitt approached it as a son rather than a father. He really didn’t have to dig that far to mine his own feelings: “You can say the word ‘Dad’ and I'm moved,” he explains, touching his heart.

Pitt sees a thematic connection between his two current characters, mainly that “you’ve got to go through the Roy experience to get to the place of ease of Cliff,” he says.

Portraying heroes like these (Roy tries to save the world and Cliff inadvertently prevents an infamous tragedy) has been on Pitt’s mind more as he grows older: “What am I representing to my kids? What could speak or mean something to them? Sure, I am more conscious of that in a way. (But) I don't choose with any grand design. I don't choose something till I finish the last one because you never know where you're at when you come out the other end. And it's always by feeling. What's interesting now, at this moment.”

Pitt looks back on his career and one "turning point" that proved to him early he could play such complex personalities was David Fincher's 1995 mystery thriller “Seven.” “Although I would go on to lose it many times, I had my direction,” Pitt says.

Netflix is on Pitt’s mind a lot lately, especially with one of his production efforts, “The King” (in select theaters Oct. 11, streaming Nov. 1), starring Timothee Chalamet, arriving right in time for awards season. “Ad Astra” director James Gray reports that Pitt is as devoted a filmmaker as he is an actor: During post-production on their space movie, “I’d get emails at 2 o'clock in the morning with, ‘Hey, what about this piece of voice-over here? Would this be cool?’ ”

Pitt might have been up anyway since he’s an admitted binge-watcher: The latest in his Netflix queue is “Mindhunter" Season 2. “That’s great,” says Pitt, who also has definite thoughts on “Netflix-cheating” as a concept. “See, this is the problem with (couple) viewing. It’s something you’ve got to say, ‘Honey, you're just going to have to catch up because I can't wait.'”

When he’s not in deep collaborating with others on a film, Pitt prefers to be outside on a bike ride or engaging in “artistic endeavors that are just all on me.” Not on his to-list is joining Twitter, where he’d probably have 5 gazillion followers instantly and also be a target for trolls. “I’m a dinosaur, man. I missed that one,” he says, smiling.

“I'm so much a believer in acceptance or striving for acceptance,” Pitt says. “I'm big on the stoic philosophers – it's amazing to me how little we've learned in 2,000 years. We're making all the same mistakes over and over again. It seems cyclical in that way.

“It's a truism that we can't control anything but our state of mind. I think that's how the T-shirt goes but I believe it.”

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Promos 2



I can't seem to find the original source of interviews being quoted by some tabs (M&C & Virgin).  The quotes echo words he has said before but in the absence of a bonafide, verifiable source, they remain question marks.

From Monsters & Critics

People News

Brad Pitt love children's chaos

Dec 6, 2012, 4:01 GMT


Brad Pitt and Angelina JolieBrad Pitt and Angelina Jolie
Brad Pitt says spending a morning with six children is 'a beautiful form of chaos'.
The 48-year-old actor - who raises six kids, Maddox, 11, Pax, eight, Zahara, seven, Shiloh, six, and four-year-old twins Knox and Vivienne, with his fiancee Angelina Jolie - is trying to enjoy every moment he can with his children because he knows they wont be young forever.
He said: 'I would describe it as a beautiful and controlled form of chaos. Sometimes you're tired and you kind of function on automatic but I really appreciate this time where the kids are still young and they're forming right in front of your eyes.
'I'm trying to enjoy it all because I know that one day I'm going to look back and they'll all be grown up and I'll miss this time.'
Brad and Angelina's older children have got used to travelling around the world with their busy parents, and the 'World War Z' star revealed the couple's youngsters love to create their own 'fantasy playgrounds' when they are staying in hotels.
He added: 'They're expert travellers. The older ones are getting very adept at packing up and taking along the books or toys they like to have with them wherever we're living. They know the routine by now and so it's much easier for me to organise everyone while Angie can pay more attention to getting the twins ready.
'They also love staying at hotels because it's this pretend world for them that they get to be part of. It's quite something to watch them create their own little fantasy playground wherever we go - running around, jumping, playing make-believe. I love it! Most of the time!'


From Daily Mail

Doting dad Pitt

Brad Pitt loves spending mornings with his six children. The actor is trying to enjoy every moment he can with his and Angelina Jolie's kids - Maddox, 11, Pax, eight, Zahara, seven, Shiloh, six, and four-year-old twins Knox and Vivienne because he knows they won't be young forever. "I would describe it as a beautiful and controlled form of chaos," he said. "Sometimes you're tired and you kind of function on automatic but I really appreciate this time where the kids are still young and they're forming right in front of your eyes." - showbizspy.com




From OK Germany via entertainmentwise

Brad Pitt: 'I'm Blunt With Angelina Jolie When Something's Wrong'

Actor opens up about relationship with Hollywood siren

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are one of the hottest couple's in showbiz with many wondering how the hunk managed to tame the sultry sex symbol, who was once one of the wildest stars in Hollywood.

According to Brad he's not scared to stand up to his fiancee and can be “blunt” when they're is something wrong. The star, who is currently promoting new movie 'Killing Me Softly' told German OK! Magazine that he's not scared to stand up to Ang.

"We always say openly and sometimes bluntly if there is anything wrong. We are so unbelievably close to each other - in the way we think and the way we live," he revealed.

Speaking of what he loves about his partner of seven years, who he has six children with, Brad went on: "And I admire Angie for her ability to stay cool in times of crisis, she always knows the answer. I'm much more unbalanced in that way! But these are the things I'm learning from her - at least I try."



 (WENN)

With such a spotlight on their relationship Brad admitted at times it can be difficult to handle their brood of children and with six under 11, just leaving the house can be a military operations.

"Believe me, every time we want to leave the house to do some shopping it's like planning an escape. It's as if there's money on our heads?," he explained.

"I'm happy that at least the older kids aren't afraid of the paparazzi any more and are used to it."
But it's not just leaving the house that puts Brad under pressure, he recently admitted the children are impatient for the couple to tie the knot having got engaged in April this year.

Speaking at a press conference for his new movie earlier this week, he said: "I will admit we have had some pressure from our kids. We didn't realise how much it means to them, and in getting engaged, we didn't realise how much it means to ourselves."





From USAToday

Brad Pitt is a man on the move

The Oscar-nominated superstar deftly navigates a life in the spotlight and the beloved 'chaos' of six kids at home.

5:22PM EST November 28. 2012 - NEW YORK – Brad Pitt bounds into a suite at the Waldorf-Astoria, doles out a quick handshake that turns into a hug, and sprints to one of the three windows in the room. He pulls open the curtains and looks at the sleet and rain hammering Manhattan 29 floors below him. Like any commuter, Pitt is concerned about annoying travel delays and getting to work on time.
"I gotta get out of here. I go straight to set," he says, referring to the London re-shoots of the zombie flick World War Z. "I just buzzed in and am buzzing out. I hit the plane this afternoon."
Yes, this is what the most famous actor in the world is really like. Shockingly, weirdly, almost off-puttingly accessible. Once you get past the thick layers of security – necessary, as evidenced by a hotel employee who had earlier flipped out in ecstasy after seeing Pitt in person – and peel back all your expectations, fed by years of panting tabloid coverage of everything Pitt, you meet a guy who's friendly, a bit tired, and exceedingly pleasant.
"He's the most normal guy. I spent a lot of time with him on those Ocean's movies – he doesn't do anything to drum up that insanity. He lives in the middle of that and he's somehow found a way to not go crazy. He's not crazy," confirms his friend Matt Damon, who had just seen Pitt. "I don't know if that's his family or his upbringing and now it's become his children and his wife. It's incredible – seeing him yesterday, he's the same great guy from Missouri. I don't understand how he keeps doing great work. It would seem to me that you would lose your ability to be a human being. I genuinely don't know how he's still such a great guy, such a real guy."
Ask Pitt that question and he just laughs. That's probably the better and smarter alternative to furiously and futilely fighting the constant scrutiny lavished on him and his family, fiancée Angelina Jolie and their six kids, Maddox, 11, Pax, 9, Zahara, 7, Shiloh, 6, and twins Knox and Vivienne, 4.
"We're a double whammy, Angie and I. I jumped into this thing somehow as a tabloid magnet. I'm not sure what I did," says Pitt. "We stay blissfully naïve to all of it. You can't do anything about it. More importantly, I trust my decision-making process. When you have that other feedback, those other comments, they're always in the back there. They color your thinking in an unpure way. I don't like that. I don't want anything steering me right or left. I find it a much healthier way to live and my decisions are better, because they're strictly mine."
He applies that same instinctual approach to his career. It's how and why he signed on to star in Killing Them Softly, a Mob drama directed by Andrew Dominik that opens Friday. He'd worked with Pitt on 2007's The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. Dominik had sent Pitt a text, asking if he was interested in playing a cool-headed and practical hit man. Pitt said yes. The next day, they hashed out the deal at Pitt's L.A. home, sans agents or managers.
"I don't know if I've ever made one happen faster. Andrew is a friend of mine and someone I trust with anything and everything," says Pitt.
What fuels his decisions? "It's more about the company I keep. But I liked this idea. Selfishly, for me, it's getting to do something more urban from my upbringing in the old Ozarks," he says. "I thought it was a very provocative telling. People came in. We did it for no money. We shot the whole film in five or six weeks. It's pretty fun."
Dominik first approached Pitt because they had a history together, and a rich working relationship. Plus, he says, Pitt has that ephemeral quality you can't really quantify. You know it when you see it.
"He always seems to retain his mystery on screen. There's something unattainable about Brad. There's something mysterious about him," says Dominik. "Brad is a naturally very generous guy. This time, he gets to play a selfish (expletive) and gets to take a holiday from himself. You have to cast Brad as someone exceptional. Here, he's the enforcer. He's a cool part."
In person, too, says Dominik, Pitt is just as disarming. "He's really hard to buy a gift for. He gives a lot. It's hard to receive," says the director. "I find Brad to be very straightforward, very stubborn. He's a contrarian. He's not frightened. That might be unusual for a movie star in his situation. He's very fearless. When things have been difficult in my life, he's been there. I admire the way he handles himself."
Would Pitt go into acting today, if he knew what the industry was like and the impact fame would have on his life?
"Now, at this age? No, but not because of acting. I have other, quieter interests," says the Oscar-nominated actor, who works with the Make It Right foundation, which builds green homes for lower-income families, and dabbles in architecture, jewelry and furniture design.
Pitt doesn't come across as angry or bitter or fed-up with his supersized existence, which is based in Los Angeles, New Orleans and a chateau in France. His life just is what it is. The fans are who they are. And things, he says, have calmed down – somewhat.
"It's changed a little bit. Now, being older, it's actually sweeter. It's nicer in some ways. Somewhere in the middle it got really ugly, the grabbing, not seeing that there's a person there," he says. "That was coming from the bounty hunt for pictures. It's an older generation now. We're all getting older."
His birthday is next month and in one year, he turns 50. To say Pitt is aging gracefully is to call Chanel just another clothing line. "I'm actually kinda doing it. Talk to me in 10 years when the knees aren't working at all," he says.
As for his upcoming nuptials, Pitt remains circumspect, telling reporters only that it may happen soon. His home life, says the actor, revolves around his brood. He and Jolie take turns working; she just shot the fable Maleficent in England.
"We keep the family together and one of us can always be home with the kids. By the way, it's a really nice break. Mom worked all summer. I got to spend a lot of time with them. We got to come up and spend time at mommy's work. It's just the way to do it," he says.
When told about this reporter's problems with toddler tantrums, Pitt nods. He gets it. And he also understands the mess that kids usher in, and the inability to keep any area of any dwelling toy-free.
"After two, you just throw in the towel. It's just nice. Once you get to three or four or five or six, it makes it a little bit richer," he says of his children. "There's a few more sounds in the house. I love it. I love the chaos. I love the big family. I love the chaos in the house. It's so full of light. As long as you've got a place to be a quiet, but you don't because they take over those areas too. It's not your home anymore."
And what about the obsession with crayons or markers? Yes, Pitt's been there.
"Oh man. One of them ended up with a Sharpie. I walked into our room and am washing my hands in the bathroom. I look over. What's that on the sink? I trace a line across the wall, across the shades, the bathtub, into the bedroom, along the wall, up over the bed. Someone had covered the entire place and ended in big scribbling at the end," he says, not naming the culprit. "It was a she. It was two shes. One inspired the other to keep going."
He's adorable when discussing his kids, just another doting and bemused dad telling stories about them and Jolie, as long as they're not for publication. As the interview wraps up, Pitt checks the time, glancing at the stunning gold timepiece on his left arm.
"My missus got me this watch. It's an old one," he says.
Clearly, Jolie knows her man. If there's one thing to note about Pitt, it's the difficulty in finding a good present for him. Dominik says he's impossible to buy for. Pitt agrees.
"I don't want people to buy me gifts. I feel guilty. I'm not good at accepting gifts. I feel uncomfortable. Buy me a drink!"






From AP via The Telegraph

Brad Pitt on marriage to Angelina Jolie, 'Killing Them Softly', and THAT Chanel ad

His face is hardly wrinkled and he is still one of the biggest movie stars on the planet, but Brad Pitt has admitted that he is becoming increasingly concerned with his own mortality.

Brad Pitt says the spoofs of his Chanel No5 ad are Brad Pitt says the spoofs of his Chanel No5 ad are "fair play"
2:52AM GMT 29 Nov 2012
Twenty years after his break-out role as the heart throb of "Thelma & Louise", Pitt says he is now working as though his expiration date is lurking.
"I'm definitely past halfway," the actor, who turns 49 in December, revealed in a new interview. "I think about it very much as a father. You just want to be around to see (your children) do everything. If I have so many days left, how am I filling those days? I've been agonizing over that one a bit like I never have before."
That sense of urgency has helped fuel some of Pitt's most daring work, including his new film, "Killing Them Softly."
The film is his second with Andrew Dominik, the New Zealand-born director of "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford". In the adaption of George V Higgins' 1974 crime novel, "Cogan's Trade," Pitt plays a hit man operating in a shabby underworld of image-conscious gangsters.
Pitt has starred in surprisingly few blockbusters over the last decade. Instead, he has gravitated toward working with revered directors like Terrence Malick ("Tree of Life") and the Coen brothers, and shaping his opportunities by producing them. His production company, Plan B, produced both "Jesse James" and "Killing Them Softly," as well as many of his films in between.
More often than not, he's sought to downplay his glamour, a track begun with David Fincher's "Fight Club" and extended with ruminations on celebrity (Dominik's "Jesse James") and more character actor roles than most leading men would dare (his ditzy personal trainer in the Coens' "Burn After Reading," his Nazi-killing lieutenant in Quentin Tarantino's "Inglourious Basterds").
"Killing Them Softly," too, is an ensemble, with James Gandolfini, Richard Jenkins, Ray Liotta, Scoot McNairy and Ben Mendelsohn.

Even in last year's performance as Oakland A's general manager Billy Beane in "Moneyball" (for which he landed his third Oscar nomination), Pitt deliberately played it low-key.
"Life is more interesting," he said in an interview with the Associated Press published on Wednesday. "I enjoy the fantasy; I enjoy when everyone wins. I just don't contribute to that idea very well, for better or worse.
"There's something subversive in my Christian upbringing or something, my mid-America upbringing. That irreverent urge that makes you want to yell or fart during the Benediction in church. I just can't help it."
And yet, Pitt has simultaneously carried the movie star mantle with seeming ease. Though his relationship with Angelina Jolie, with whom he has six children, has made him a constant tabloid target, he appeared relaxed and unguarded in conversation. He said his celebrity "hasn't bugged me since the '90s," but he acknowledged that he occasionally trades on it: "I mean, I play some smart ball," he said.
"The difficulty with Brad was always: What can you cast a movie star in?" says Dominik. "You have to deal with it. You have to cast him as someone extraordinary, which I guess he is. He's the cool guy in the movie."
Certainly a very un-"Fight Club" thing to do was the recent Chanel ad campaign Pitt stars in, where he smolders in black-and-white and says things like "It's not a journey" into the camera. The spots were mocked on "Saturday Night Live," to which Pitt says cheerfully: "Fair play, fair play." After a reporter admits not knowing much about fragrances, he laughed, admitting: "Apparently, neither do I."
So why do it?
"Never done it before," was the star's reply. "Respect the company. I'm getting old. Last time I'll probably be able to do something like that."
It is a line of reasoning that seems pervasive in Pitt's choices right now, including his current project: "World War Z", a zombie action film reportedly budgeted at $180 million that could give Pitt what his resume is missing: a franchise.

"I'm not a franchise guy," he said. "They told me I should be focusing on that, as I'm getting older and cresting the precipice and heading down the other side: 'You should really bank one of those.' I'm just not good at it."
The film is also a far bigger scale production for Pitt and Plan B, and things have not gone smoothly. The ending is being reshot - typically a bad sign for a movie - and Pitt calls the film "a total learning experience for me." When the film finally wraps, he said, "Believe me, I'll be celebrating."
Dede Gardner, Pitt's producing partner, says getting older has only made Pitt more patient.
"He's extremely careful," says Gardner. "I suppose that's one thing that happens if you age with consciousness, to be vigilant."
Their other coming productions are smaller, more director-driven. Plan B is producing the next film by Steve McQueen ("Shame"), "12 Years a Slave," and is slated to again produce a film by Dominik: his planned Marilyn Monroe biopic "Blonde."
Though "Jesse James" made a scant $4 million at the box office, Pitt has stuck with the director.
"Somewhere in the late '90s, it became clear to me that there were many leading men roles that you could plug anyone of us into and virtually get the same thing," said Pitt. "Because there's such an investment of time and thought, I wanted to find stories that were more personal to me and that I believed I could add something that was unique."
"Killing Them Softly," is certainly that, a film that probably would not exist if not for Pitt. Set in 2008, the fiscal crisis looms large, with speeches by US presidents George Bush and Barack Obama inserted as an obvious metaphor. In it, Pitt's character declares: "America isn't a country. It's a business."
Gandolfini, former star of The Sopranos, had twice previously worked with Pitt. "We were both at the beginning of our careers," said Gandolfini. "He's the same guy. He's a good guy, a regular guy."
Despite any concerns about "cresting the precipice," Pitt exuded contentment. His confidence as an actor is high, he said, attributing his ability to "craftsmanship".
In his personal life, he and Jolie are planning to marry, after once saying they would not until gay marriage was legal.
"It's an exciting prospect, even though for us, we've gone further than that," said Pitt. "But to concretize it in that way. It actually means more to me than I thought it would. It means a lot to our kids."
As he approaches 50, Pitt's career longevity even surprises him.
"It's amazing I've stuck with this this long because I'm not usually like that. I hit the road," he said. "Exploring within it has been the thing that's kept me in it."
Source: AP


From Extra
November 27, 2012 The A List

Proud parents Brad Pitt and fiancée Angelina Jolie may have a troupe of aspiring actors on their hands as Vivienne, Zahara and Pax prepare to make their big debut in mom's film, “Maleficent.”

Getty Images
“Extra’s” Jerry Penacoli caught up with Brad at the “Killing Them Softly” premiere and got the scoop on Angelina’s “Sleeping Beauty” flick. “This is a story [the kids] know and love well, and their mommy's Maleficent,” he explained. “And so... they don't see it as anything beyond that, just playtime.”

If the Jolie-Pitt children catch the acting bug, however, Brad and Angie won’t stand in their way. “Whatever they want to do… we'll have them figure it out,” says dad.

Brad is one busy guy. In addition to his dad duties and “Killing Them Softly” press tour, he’s also designing furniture for Pollaro and starring in the upcoming zombie apocalypse movie, “World War Z.”

“This is not your usual zombie… it’s good, it’s good fun,” he said of the horror film.





From People

Brad Pitt: Wedding Will Happen 'Soon'

11/27/2012 at 07:50 AM EST

Put the champagne on ice. It appears Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie's long-awaited wedding isn't far off – and that's from someone who would know.

"I am getting more pressure from my kids, and it is something I want to do within their lifetime, but I also feel like the time has come," Pitt said Monday night at the premiere of his new film, Killing Them Softly, in New York.

"The time is nigh," he added. "It's soon. I got a good feeling about it."

Pitt, 48, who has been in London filming World War Z this month, has been with Jolie, 37, for seven years. They have six children together – Maddox, 11, Pax, 8, Zahara, 7, Shiloh, 6, and 4-year-old twins Knox and Vivienne – and got engaged this past spring.

And yet, even with so much history together already, Pitt says the idea of tying the knot with his longtime partner is still hugely meaningful.

"We've had a family, we've raised the kids," he says. "I am surprised how much [marriage] meant to me once you had that."

Reporting by K.C. BAKER







From SheKnows
Since Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie played Mr. And Mrs. Smith, fans have been wondering when they’ll become Mr. and Mrs. Pitt. Pressure from their large brood seems to be winning out over Brad’s previous claim that he and Angie would wait until marriage was legal for all. Now he’s saying it will be “soon.” But how soon?

Brad Pitt and Angelina JolieChristmas/Christmas Eve

Smart celebrities know if they want to be left alone on their wedding day, it’s best to do it when something bigger is going on. So what could possibly be bigger than the most highly anticipated nuptials of our generation? Christmas. Think about it. All the paparazzi and reporters will be nestled, all snug in their beds, while Brad and Angie decide to wed. These two celebrities are famous for shunning the popularity that surrounds them, so we could see them huddling around the Christmas tree with their offspring, exchanging vows — in front of a Santa impersonator, perhaps?

Any Friday between now and New Year's

For the same reason stated above, Brad and Angie may be planning a Friday-in-December wedding. Remember when headlines about Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes’ divorce circulated on a Friday? Afternoon, no less? That was brilliant. It still made headlines, but all us entertainment writers in the industry had already checked out for the weekend, and were kind of pissed when we had to go back to work and write about Tom Cruise’s third failed marriage. Getting married on a Friday is a close second to Christmas — it would get covered more than a Christmas wedding, but reporters wouldn’t be happy about it.

Pretty much any day in December

There are several interesting anniversaries in December that Brad and Angie may want to honor by joining in holy matrimony. Dec. 1 is World AIDS Day. Brangelina loves nothing more than stirring up a little awareness. Dec. 3 is International Day of People with Disabilities. With all the couple’s humanitarian efforts, perhaps they’ll get married on Dec. 10, which is Human Rights Day. Brad and Angelina have strong ties to Africa — Angie’s humanitarian work, their first pictures as a couple were in Africa and their daughter, Shiloh was born in Africa. Perhaps they will marry on Dec. 12, which marks Independence Day in Kenya. Our bet is that they will marry Friday, Dec. 14, which as everyone knows is haven’t-you-guys-been-together-for-seven-years-and-don’t-you-already-have-six-kids-and-you’re-probably-already-married-and-no-one-would-give-a-rip-if-you-weren’t-Angelina-Jolie-and-Brad-Pitt-day. (OK, so we may have made that last one up.)

New Year's Eve

Again, this holiday will serve as the perfect diversion with most people either in New York City or watching the gathering in Times Square on TV. People are so hung over on New Year's, it could be a week before people even catch on to a Brad/Angelina marriage. Angie’s New Year's kiss to Brad might also be her first kiss as his bride. Talk about a memorable way to ring in the New Year!



Thursday, January 12, 2012

Morgan Freeman + More Reviews


MOVIE REVIEW: ‘In the Land of Blood and Honey’

Film puts focus of victims in Bosnia


“In the Land of Blood and Honey,” directed and co-written by Angelina Jolie, refuses to spare its audience or its characters.
A grim twist on “Romeo and Juliet” set amidst mass rape and ethnic cleansing in the Bosnian war of the early 1990s, the film is part parade of war-crime horrors, part harrowing melodrama. It’s hard to watch, but Miss Jolie’s vision of social breakdown and affectless barbarism is so powerful that it deserves to be seen.
When the movie opens, Bosnia is at peace. A young woman named Ajla (Zana Marjanovic) goes on a date with a soldier named Danijel (Goran Kostic) at a local club. They flirt. They smile. They dance. And then a bomb goes off. Suddenly, their whole world is over.
When we next see Ajla, it’s four months later. Her apartment is raided by Serbian soldiers to brutal effect. The men are machine gunned; the women are taken off to a work camp to serve soldiers and be raped.
For roughly the next hour, Miss Jolie offers a cold, precise, sometimes shocking chronicle of a world wrecked by atrocity: forced relocations, mass shootings and random killings. Degradation and humiliation (old women forced to strip so soldiers can laugh) mixes with unspeakable horrors (shallow graves packed with bodies and filled in by bulldozers). After a while, it becomes hard to tell the difference — which seems to be part of the point.
The only salvation in the midst of all this is that Ajla ends up at a work camp run by Danijel — who offers her his bed, and a measure of protection. The two end up in a damaged romance — eventually a sort of hostage marriage. Their relationship, which makes up the core of the film, is marked by fascinating ambiguities.
Is Ajla genuinely attracted to Danijel, or merely accepting the comparatively easier life he offers?
Is Danijel — who at one point looks ready to take his own turn with the captive women before recognizing Alja — a monster or a savior?
The movie makes clear that the Serb forces to which Danijel belongs are responsible for the bulk of the atrocities, yet it sometimes seems to sympathize with Danijel and some of his men. It’s a movie about evil, but not villains.
Miss Jolie, whose directorial style seems influenced by an older, slower, more intentional school of filmmaking, has the sense to let the questions play out, amplifying the ambiguities rather than explaining them.
“In the Land of Blood and Honey” is the rare political movie that puts its characters first. There are few lectures, and little in the way of political history or context. In the closest thing to a political debate, Danijel defends his side, weakly, by arguing that their campaigns are “politics, not murder.” The movie, however, is long on murder and short on politics — perhaps the only reprieve the audience gets.
★ ★ ★ ½ (out of four)
TITLE: “In the Land of Blood and Honey”
CREDITS: Written and directed by Angelina Jolie
RATING: R for rape, unflinching violence, nudity




Jan 12, 2012

Freeman on pals Pitt and Jolie: 'I'm Uncle Morgan'

By Arienne Thompson, USA TODAY
Updated 1h 14m ago
By Jaap Buitendijk, Universal Studios
Screen legend Morgan Freeman has worked with just about every boldfaced name in the business, so it's no wonder that he has a gang of A-list besties to hang with.Unsurprisingly, he has only nice things to say about his Se7en co-star Brad Pitt, who's getting tons of awards season attention for his role in Moneyball.
MORE: Freeman is both movie legend and buff
"I just really admire him. He's such a fantastic actor. He's not just a pretty boy; he's a really, really fine actor. And, he loves to do it, too," Freeman tells USA TODAY of his famous friend. "We bump into each other from time to time."
Freeman, who will receive the Golden Globes' Cecil B. DeMille Lifetime Achievement Award on Sunday, is quick to remind that he's pretty chummy with Pitt's main squeeze, Angelina Jolie, too.
"I also worked with Angelina when we did Wanted, so I'm sort of in the family, as it were. (I'm) Uncle Morgan."
In addition to seeing the Jolie-Pitts at the Globes, Freeman will also hang with the couple on Jan. 21 at the Producers Guild Awards, where Jolie will accept the Stanley Kramer Award for her directorial debut, In the Land of Blood and Honey. "I'm going to be presenting it to her, so I get to hug her again," he says.




FilmDistrict

Angelina Jolie visited President yesterday. Ask her about it tonight during the !



Esquire Magazine

Don't forget to talk to Angelina Jolie, live, right here, as you watch 30 Rock tonight—really:

Monday, January 9, 2012

Chat Reminder and Instructions

gkfilms

RT : Chat LIVE with Angelina Jolie of this Thursday! Submit your Qs on Facebook:

Oprah WinfreyNetwork
WANT TO VIDEO CHAT WITH ANGELINA JOLIE?


NOTE:  You don't need to go to the other sites unless you have a favorite site that you want to give traffic to.  Just go to the film's Facebook page using the link above.

Jan 09, 2012

Angelina Jolie hosts live video chat

By Ann Oldenburg, USA TODAY
Updated 18h ago
By Ken Regan, FilmDistrict and GK Films
Angelina Jolie will join Hearst for a 45-minute live video chat on Thursday at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT. She'll be focusing on her film, In the Land of Blood & Honey."This is my first online chat and I'm thrilled that Hearst is broadcasting this across so many of its websites to reach such a diverse audience as the film expands into more theaters," Angie says in the release.
The magazine brands participating in the event are Cosmopolitan, Elle, Esquire, Good Housekeeping, Harper's Bazaar, Marie Claire, O, The Oprah Magazine, Redbook and Woman's Day.
While an unlimited number of people can participate in the live online chat, viewers must have a Facebook account in order to join the conversation and take part in the experience. To log in, see instructions below:
1. Log on to one of the participating Hearst sites:
www.cosmopolitan.com/angelina-jolie-chat
www.elle.com/angelina-jolie-chat
www.esquire.com/angelina-jolie-chat
www.goodhousekeeping.com/angelina-jolie-chat
www.harpersbazaar.com/angelina-jolie-chat
www.marieclaire.com/angelina-jolie-chat
www.oprah.com/angelina-jolie-chat
www.redbookmag.com/angelina-jolie-chat
www.womansday.com/angelina-jolie-chat
2. The user will see an event banner, video field (where the chat will play) and a Facebook chat field.
3. To begin streaming the live event, press the "play" arrow located in the center of the video field on the day of the live event.
4. Then, log in to the Facebook chat by clicking the green "Log in" button.
5. The user will then be asked to enter a Facebook username and password.
6. The user is now logged into the chat and ready to submit comments and questions.
7. Users will have the option to publish the questions submitted through their Facebook feed.

January 9, 2012, 1:00 PM

How to Talk with Angelina Jolie

This Thursday, she'll host her first-ever live online chat, to discuss her Golden Globe-nominate directorial debut, In the Land of Blood and Honey. RSVP below, and don't say we never did anything for you.

Live Chat with Angelina Jolie; Discuss 'In the Land of Blood and Honey' January 12

News by Sophia Savage | January 9, 2012
Here's your chance to chat with Angelina Jolie. She will host a 45-minute live online chat through a partnership with Hearst Magazines, focusing on her writing and her directorial debut, "In The Land of Blood and Honey." On January 12, at 5pm PST, you can chat with Jolie via Cosmopolitan, Elle, Esquire, Good Housekeeping, Harper’s Bazaar, Marie Claire, O, The Oprah Magazine, Redbook and Woman’s Day. Instructions on how to participate in the chat are below (you must have a Facebook account):

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Palm Springs 4

Brad Pitt Injures His Knee

Sunday January 08, 2012 10:15 AM EST
Brad Pitt Injures His Knee | Brad Pitt
Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt
Steve Granitz/WireImage
What's Brad Pitt's newest accessory?

A cane – and it's not just for show.

The actor, 48, walked the red carpet at the 23nd annual Palm Springs Film Festival awards gala with the cane on Saturday, and told reporters he has an injured ACL, a ligament in the knee that connects the femur with the tibia.

"I was carrying my daughter [Vivienne] down the hill and I slipped," Pitt said. "It was either her or me."

Though Pitt says he won't need surgery, he may need that cane for a while.

Not that his partner, Angelina Jolie, minds.

"I like the cane," she told reporters on the carpet Saturday, adding that the injury hasn't slowed him down much at all. "He's not that kind of guy. He does everything still."

Jolie also said that Vivienne, 3½, wasn't hurt in the tumble.

"Vivie's okay," she told reporters. "She was absolutely fine."

Reporting by SCOTT HUVER



  January 8, 2012, 11:28 am

Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie and Other Desert Campaigners

PALM SPRINGS, Calif. — The glass trophies were designed by Dale Chihuly. The appetizer was diced green beans and carrots. A press advisory had warned that after 4 p.m. “no media will be allowed to use the bathrooms.”
I had an uneasy feeling about this.
So it’s not the Golden Globes. Or the Screen Actors Guild Awards. Or even the … well, you get the idea. But the Palm Springs International Film Society’s annual prize dinner, held Saturday night here in a bedazzled convention hall, has nonetheless become a major stop in the annual campaign for little gold men.

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt at the gala on Saturday. 
Chris Pizzello/Associated PressAngelina Jolie and Brad Pitt at the gala on Saturday.

Held while ballots for Oscar nominations are still out, the Palm Springs awards are considered crucial for the fingers-on-the-ledge contingency — solid Academy Awards contenders but those who could still stand to pick up a few more votes from the older showbiz types who have decamped to the desert.
So the crowd from “Young Adult” was there – Charlize Theron and Patton Oswalt, Jason Reitman and Diablo Cody — to collect the creative ensemble prize. Glenn Close accepted the Career Achievement Chihuly while pitching “Albert Nobbs.” Gary Oldman, snubbed by the Screen Actors Guild, accepted the International Star Award for “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.”
Palm Springs, partly because it announces the winners of its awards ahead of time, draws a megawatt crowd. Among the A-listers this year were Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt and George Clooney. Mr. Pitt and Mr. Clooney were both given trophies for their work.
(Mr. Pitt and Ms. Jolie, guarded by a team of private security operatives, politely put up with nonstop pawing from attendees armed with camera phones during the four-hour dinner. “I’ve never seen such rudeness,” said Robert Stafford, a Palm Springs retiree seated at a nearby table. “Let those poor people eat their green bean salad in peace.”)
The event, hosted by the ever-chirpy Mary Hart, raised $1.6 million for the Palm Springs International Film Society. The convention center, decorated with every purple tulip west of Rotterdam (some 14,000 in total), was packed with 1,900 guests, who ate a dinner of short ribs atop a hash brown patty.
Octavia Spencer, picking up the Breakthrough Performance Award for her feisty maid in “The Help,” kicked off the evening with an emotional acceptance speech capped with a joke about the producers of the film, which centers on black maids in the 1960s. She said that a higher power “sent me two white knights — very, very white.”
Michel Hazanavicius, who accepted the Sony Bono Visionary Award for writing and directing “The Artist,” gave a gracious speech thanking the society. “I don’t know who you are, but thank you very much,” he concluded. (He’s French — cut him some slack.)
And Mr. Oldman, who drew a standing ovation from parts of the room, was equally gracious, thanking the society for focusing attention on his espionage drama. “And, of course, for my Chihuly,” he said.


Angelina Jolie Talks Brad Pitt's Injury: "Proud of Him Every Single Day"

Brad Pitt is still walking with that cane.
But being injured is worth it if it means his children are OK...

Pitt told reporters at last night's Palm Springs International Film Festival gala that he hurt himself when he took a fall while carrying daughter Vivienne.
Angelina Jolie said it's not the first injury of its kind at the Jolie-Pitt household.

"When [Maddox] was younger, I took a fall and cracked my elbow because I wanted to make sure he didn't have the fall," Jolie said. "Every parent has injured themselves. Every parent will stand in the line of fire for their kids so it's a normal thing."
Jolie said Pitt isn't milking the injury at home. "He's not that kind of guy," she said. "He does everything still."


"I'm proud of him every single day," Jolie said of her hubby, who last night was presented the Desert Palm Achievement Award by his Moneyball costar Jonah Hill.
Jolie told me she's likely to direct again after making her debut earlier this year with In The Land of Blood and Honey.
"It's such a weird thing. I sat down to try to write something and I can't even believe it's become a film," she said. "I do have a pile of things I haven't shown anybody, including one on Afghanistan."

PHOTOS: 2012 Palm Springs Film Fest
 READ: How Many Glasses of Champagne Will Be Poured at the Golden Globes?


Thursday, January 5, 2012

USA Today's Puig


Jolie's vision illuminates 'In the Land of Blood and Honey'

By Claudia Puig, USA TODAY


Rather than a glossy, superficial movie-star vanity project, In the Land of Blood and Honey feels like the sober, hard-hitting work of a humanitarian.

Angelina Jolie makes her directorial debut with this elegantly shot, deliberately paced and unflinching look at the Bosnian War of the early 1990s. Jolie also wrote this absorbing tale and appears to have done extensive research. (She has been goodwill ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees for a decade and founded an organization that provides free legal aid to asylum-seeking children.)
Though the film drags in the final third, it also powerfully captures the chaos of war and includes moments of tightly coiled suspense.

Jolie wisely illuminates the harrowing nature of the war without being didactic.

The conflict is seen through the eyes of two Bosnians, Ajla (Zana Marjanovic), a Muslim artist, and Danijel (Goran Kostic), a Serbian police officer. Before the fighting began, they had just begun a romance, but they end up on opposing sides of the ethnic conflict.

The film opens with Ajla preparing for a night out. She has a carefree time with Danijel at a Sarajevo nightclub until a bomb rips through the place, and the tone of the film changes abruptly. Scenes of brutal massacres provide a powerful window into a period in which the Balkan region was torn apart.

A few months after their date, Ajla is taken from the apartment she shares with her sister, Lejla (Vanesa Glodjo), and is housed in an encampment of women. The prisoners are systematically raped and beaten.

Meanwhile, Danijel is serving in the military under his father, Gen. Vukojevich (Rade Serbedzija), a commander hellbent on ethnic cleansing. As it turns out, Danijel is one of the soldiers in charge where Ajla is being held. When he realizes she is there, he makes an effort to protect her.

Later, he sequesters her in separate quarters, and the two share an erotic connection. But does Ajla have ulterior motives? Where she was once genuinely attracted to Danijel, now Ajla must be concerned with mere survival.

As Danijel arranges clandestine trysts, her motives and his allegiances become intriguingly ambiguous.
Jolie made wise casting choices throughout. The two lead actors display a range of complex emotions. Kostic is coldly reserved in one scene, then warmly emotional, even volatile, in the next, keeping the audience uneasy about his character's next move. Marjanovic is able to convey a great deal, even in the silence forced upon her character.

Jolie shows a gift for storytelling and doesn't shy away from gritty scenes of wartime atrocities.

With its compelling, assured narrative, which blends the harrowing and the poignant, In the Land of Blood and Honey feels like it was made by a far more seasoned filmmaker.