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Brad Pitt Interview - Troy

Brad Pitt is an Oscar-nominated actor who's worked with several brilliant directors: Terry Gilliam in Twelve Monkeys, David Fincher in Fight Club, Steven Soderbergh in Ocean's Eleven and now Wolfgang Petersen in this summer's $200 million epic Troy. He portrays the almost-invincible warrior Achilles in the adaptation of Homer's The Iliad - a role that forced him to get in shape, quit smoking and put off a potential midlife crisis on his 40th birthday.

Did you do a lot of research on the character of Achilles?

BRAD PITT: Fortunately, there's so much that can be done on The Iliad. So many people have written about it throughout the ages that I had a great well of information to glean from. So, I culled the things that meant the most to me. It really wasn't that difficult. He's a really isolated character who's in search of himself.

Did you read the whole thing or go the Cliff Notes route?

BRAD PITT: I actually read the whole thing because I knew this question was coming. When I started it, though, I really got into it. There's a reason why it's still around. It's one of the great stories in a handful of stories. We've all seen how many films and stories are derivative of it.

What's your take on Achilles?

BRAD PITT: This may take us a while. There's a real telling line when he says, "I want what all men want; I just want it more." There's a real restlessness and isolation in the guy, whether he's running from death or trying to find personal glory. But now, he's at a point where he's had that glory, and that hasn't done it for him. The Achilles' Heel, to me, is representative of his heart. It wasn't until Priam knocked some sense into him, with words instead of might, that he was then able to ride out the rest of his life with a personal understanding of the greater humanity and his own inner peace of mind.

What's your Achilles' Heel?

BRAD PITT: I'm not going there. I don't know. It's intimacy for all of us.

Is there a connection between Achilles' glory and your own glory?

BRAD PITT: You can make parallels to fame, but it's not near to the extent of the Achilles character. I could certainly draw on that through the choice that he's offered in the beginning and always wrestling with, this crisis of conscience.

Is this the closest you think you'll come to a real action film?

BRAD PITT: Actually, no. I'm just finishing up a more contemporary action film. Mr. & Mrs. Smith is more of a comedic action film, and I just started Ocean's Twelve.

What can you say about the choreography of the fight scenes?

BRAD PITT: The choreography was fantastic. It was very important that we find a distinct fighting style. It was Simon Crane, our second unit director, who was responsible for all of the strategies, the choreography and the dramas of the fights. He worked on Saving Private Ryan and Braveheart, so he's top-notch. But in this one, it was real important to develop a distinct style. We've seen so many fights at this point that he very smartly took it another way. Meaning that in this time, when things are faster and harder with cuts and slashes, he took it back and took a more balletic approach. He was very adamant that we do it ourselves.

Did you come up with that power move Achilles does?

BRAD PITT: No, that was all Simon Crane and his boys: Buster Reeves, Dave Leitch and Mark Mottram. There's a whole bevy of these stunt guys. I wasn't on wires, either.

You're all buffed up. How hard was it getting in shape?

BRAD PITT: It's amazing what an impending midlife crisis will do for you, really. It got me motivated. I just turned 40 in December.

How hard was it turning 40?

BRAD PITT: I see it as a real badge of honor. I really kind of enjoyed it. No more excuses, you know? I'm responsible. I can't blame anything on my parents. I'm responsible for my mistakes and my choices.

Can you talk about your training regimen?

BRAD PITT: It sucked, and it was brutal. I started out about six months ahead. I got a guy who knew what he was talking about. It was four meals a day of protein and low-carb. It was quitting smoking and three hours in the gym, getting to a point of absolute discomfort. After three months, I finally started to enjoy it. And on top of that, we had sword lessons.

Are you still not smoking?

BRAD PITT: No, I picked it up again. I've actually picked it up, then quit, and then picked it up again.

How concerned were you about the dialogue and the dialect?

BRAD PITT: I was concerned because we've set more of an English base to the classical dialects. It's more difficult for people from the South or the Midwest or the hills to adopt an English accent. When America was formed, most English ended up in New York or on the East Coast. The Irish and Scottish went down the coast or spread out into the country. They went into the country south and west. So it's very easy for us to do Irish accents. It's very easy for New Yorkers or people from the upper east to do English accents and vice versa. I had to put a lot of work into it. I didn't really find it until the second week, so I had to loop some of it.

For all the action in the film, the single best scene is your scene with Peter O'Toole, where you just talk. How important a scene was that?

BRAD PITT: David Benioff did a great job getting the essence of all the scenes from The Iliad into a 120-page script. That's no small feat. Some of it is really buried, but if you really look, it's there. That scene floored me. The scene is very important to the Achilles character because we find him in a crisis of conscience with his decision. It's not until Patroclus is killed that he wants vengeance. I just don't like a vengeance story, and I think we're far too obsessed with the vengeance story. I wanted to get to a place and show rage and vengeance as almost a form of insanity, like a crime of passion, and it certainly is as far as Achilles goes, after the event itself.

How was it working with Peter O'Toole?

BRAD PITT: I've had a few highlights in the decade or so that I've gotten to do this, but that gives me goose flesh. Just to be able to do that with Peter O'Toole. I love that man very much.

Do you get nervous?

BRAD PITT: No. I would have when I was younger, but now I'm very aware that my game is going to be better when his game is better.

Can you talk about the Trojan Horse?

BRAD PITT: They built it, and it weighed tons. They had to assemble it with cranes. It was a beautiful design. They went with the idea that it was made out of burnt ships and things that had been destroyed in the war. I thought it was really pretty smart.

Did they shoot any footage of its actual construction?

BRAD PITT: Oh no. At that point, we'd been through so much of the story. Everyone is aware of the Trojan Horse, so we felt we needed to get there quickly.

Is Achilles invulnerable except for the heel?

BRAD PITT: No, we never played that.

Was there any talk of not having the arrow in the heel?

BRAD PITT: I still question the end. I'm sure I'll be questioning it for a couple of years. But we didn't play the gods as characters in the story. We played that scene more as reality, and that's the shot that took him down.

When you do nude scenes, do you buff up especially for those?

BRAD PITTNo, you've heard stories about people working out for those scenes, but I'd feel stupid. I think you can tell. You can see he has just come out of the gym.

With all this work you're doing, how are you able to juggle it and your personal life?

BRAD PITT I didn't work at all for two years going into this film. So Jen [Aniston] and I got a lot of time together. We both accept this aspect of our business, and we're glad to see each other when we can.

Was it disappointing not to work with Darren Aronofsky on The Fountain?

BRAD PITTIt was a big disappointment. I think that Darren is on to something special. I think he's a unique visionary. Actually, in the two-year period when I didn't work, I spent half that time working with Darren. The piece was so ambitious and out there that it needed more time to incubate. It needed to answer more issues. There were too many holes in it. At that time, it was moving forward, and money was being spent when it really needed to be done right because it was so ambitious. I've read it since then. He's going to be shooting it in the fall, I believe. I was pained and pleased to see that it's happening. He got it.

Are you and David Fincher planning to work together again?

BRAD PITTOh yeah. We've been talking about a couple of things. It's just too early to discuss it. But we're always talking about a couple of things, and we'll definitely do something.

Are you and Jen planning to start a family soon?

BRAD PITT Yeah, it's time. It's time.

Do you look forward to fatherhood?

BRAD PITTI do. I think I'm finally at a place where I won't mess 'em up too much.

We've heard you were nervous doing your guest spot on Friends.

BRAD PITTI was. I was really nervous. It's a whole different thing. I was completely out of my water. It's a different rhythm. It's a completely different scenario.

Would you work with Jen again?

BRAD PITTIf you look through history at couples that have worked together, the odds aren't with us. So, it'd have to be really handpicked.

Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward certainly did good work.

BRAD PITTThere's a good one. But I can name more that aren't.

What can you tell us about Ocean's Twelve?

BRAD PITT: It's really well done. [Steven] Soderbergh is as bright as they come. It starts out where we left off. Benedict is on to us, so we're on the run, and we can't work anywhere because we're too hot. So we go to Europe.

You mentioned, perhaps jokingly, a midlife crisis. But did you indulge in anything for yourself? A sports car?

BRAD PITTNo, I didn't do anything. We were doing the fights [for Troy] on my birthday. I'd always said I was going to get something like a Rolls. But then I got too into the energy conservation. No, I just came back and had a nice little quiet dinner with my friends and my wife. We had to do it after the fact. It was a nice little dinner at home.

You mentioned the fame parallels. Do you find the whole fame game silly?

BRAD PITTI don't know how to answer that. I don't find it silly. I certainly have been drawn to people or events and learned something about my life from it or emulated something. But it can easily go down the wrong road, when it becomes obsession. I really don't have a great answer for it.

What was the weirdest encounter with a fan?

BRAD PITT Well, just when they break into your house. I remember being in Argentina. I was dating [Gwyneth] Paltrow at the time. We were certainly fading off to sleep and in the room I see this figure come in, and it was a little 14-year-old girl who had climbed over the walls and had broken into the house through an upstairs window.

What are you listening to music-wise these days?

BRAD PITT: We listen to different things, but me, I've been really into Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros lately. I'm a big Chris Cornell addict, anything he does. I like the Foo Fighters. I just got into Interpol. There's a new band, Franz Ferdinand, and they're pretty fun. They're a fun English band. They're upbeat. And Wilco, I'm still into them.

Who deals better with career anxiety, you or Jen?

BRAD PITT We kind of balance each other out. But she probably does it better. We really don't do that badly at that, either one of us.

How is Jen dealing with post-Friends life?

BRAD PITTShe's really sad to see it go, in a way. She knows it's a big change in her life. It's like when you left college; that era is over. She made some really, really wonderful friends and had some times that meant a lot to her. But it's also the excitement of embarking on the next era.

What superpower would you like to have?

BRAD PITTI'd like to turn back time if I could. I'd like to redo a couple of things.

So you're not completely happy with everything in your life?

BRAD PITTNo, I'm not completely happy, but I'm also a big believer in that it's the mistakes that define you as much anything. It's there that you get real understanding of yourself. You can't have one without the other.

So how do you look back on an experience like Meet Joe Black?

BRAD PITTSee, now, at the same time I worked with [Director] Marty Brest, who had a great impact on my life. I love him dearly. So, because it didn't necessarily work or be as successful as something like [Troy] will be, I wouldn't trade it in.

Do you and Jen still play board games?

BRAD PITTYeah, we do. We haven't gotten to play a lot of them. We like backgammon.