At 55, the consummate Hollywood star seems to have the Hollywood parts figured out, using his wattage to get unlikely movies—like his new space drama, Ad Astra—into theaters.  Brad Pitt interviews tend to happen in strange and impromptu places. Like this poolhouse, on a property that belongs to neither of us, not too far outside Pasadena. By necessity and inclination, Pitt likes to present a moving target, and so he spends a lot of time passing through spaces that are convenient to something else he’s doing.  Just yesterday the Quentin Tarantino film Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood, which Pitt stars in opposite […]

Brad Pitt is making matcha green tea on a cool morning in his old Craftsman in the Hollywood Hills, where he’s lived since 1994. There have been other properties in other places—including a château in France and homes in New Orleans and New York City—but this has always been his kids’ “childhood home,” he says. And even though they’re not here now, he’s decided it’s important that he is. Today the place is deeply silent, except for the snoring of his bulldog, Jacques. Pitt, who exudes likability, general decency, and a sense of humor (dark and a little cockeyed), says […]

Brad Pitt became a movie star before he had been able to make himself an actor. Brad Pitt won’t remember you. If you’ve met him, he’ll have no idea who you are when he meets you again. Even if you’ve had what he calls “a real conversation,” your face will start fading from his memory as soon as you walk away. He’ll try to hold on to its outlines, but your features will suffer an inexorable erasure, and the next time he sees you you’ll be brand-new to him. He used to try tricking those he’d forgotten into thinking he […]

Which movie has made you cry?I’m not much of a crier at films, but there was one… I was coming back from Cabo on my way to Montreal, and I got hit with Montezuma’s revenge. I could not keep anything down. I was stuck in a hotel room with no windows and was just doing what you do when you’re sick. On day two of this extremely painful episode, I watched a film called Life as a House. Kevin Kline is an architect and learns he has terminal cancer. He’s estranged from his teenage son and decides they’re going to […]

We find ourselves ensconced in a 14th-floor suite at Hollywood’s W Hotel — chosen because Pitt’s Cadillac Escalade can make a quick in-and-out to avoid the paparazzi thirsting to behold him. Pitt doesn’t blame them. Media reports surfaced hours earlier that police had interviewed his bodyguard about remains near the Hollywood sign. Still, he can’t help being bemused. “I was watching CNN, and they said, ‘Brad Pitt’s home!’ and, ‘Brad Pitt’s bodyguard!’ ” he laughs in disbelief. “I’m like: ‘Why? Why?’ “ The report is nonsense, of course. His security chief happened to pass a policeman who asked if Pitt’s […]

Pitt talks about dreams, self-doubt, and the serious work it took to become an actor he could be proud of. “Once I had a meeting with Quentin Tarantino where we went through five bottles of wine,” Brad Pitt says, deep into a conversation that will span three and a half hours at a London photo studio. Pitt smiles, then makes a playful stab at a guilt trip: “My kids are just waiting for me at home. I’m their father. They’re wondering, ‘When’s Daddy coming home?”‘ I tell Pitt that his kids will be fine — they’ve got a strong mother […]

“Do you know how you tell real love? It’s when someone else’s interest trumps your own. I like to put it that way: trumps your own. Love of somebody else–of family, of your kids–becomes the most important, most worthwhile thing in your life.” “I have love in my life, a soul mate–absolutely. When someone asked me why Angie and I don’t get married, I replied, ‘Maybe we’ll get married when it’s legal for everyone else.” “My life has been about big changes. It’s always been that way. When I go down a path, I take it to the end. Then […]

To be Brad Pitt is to know the bowels of hotels: the hidden mazes of back entrances, subterranean passages and service elevators daily trudged by housekeepers and room service waiters—and sometimes traveled by a VIP guest who needs secret conveyance to his suite. Thirty minutes before Pitt is scheduled to arrive at the Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood, his private security detail is scouting a route through the basement and issuing brisk instructions to hotel staff. Intensifying the situation is the fact that, a few days earlier, Pitt said on television that he “hates” the paparazzi—an arguably gratuitous comment, since, who […]