Brad Pitt’s full Parade interview
August 7, 2009 by Sherry
The article opens with a strong statement: ‘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 I take another one. I took the path of not having kids—now it’s time for family.” Parade has their full interview with Brad Pitt up on their site, which you can now read in its entirety right here.
The other day I posted some of the sneak peek snippets from Brad’s interview and it was already wonderful. Reading the full thing is even better. Author Dotson Rader was lucky enough to be invited right into Brad and Angelina’s home in Los Angeles to sit down and conduct the interview. I’ve always thought those are some of the best ones because where else can you be more relaxed than in your own home?
The article goes on to state what fans already know – that Brad and Angelina together are a humongous “international phenomenon” and also adds what we’ve discussed in the past, that not only are they highly photographed, they’re practically “besieged”.
Brad reveals one of his parenting tricks at one point, saying that he’s found that classical music is a great way to calm his kids down if anyone is particularly upset about something. Every parent has their little things that they do, it’s fun to know one of his!
The author describes Brad as being incredibly likable, referring to him as “relaxed, thoughtful, and unpretentious”. I like the choice of words, because unpretentious is something I have always thought about Brad Pitt in all of his interviews – he just doesn’t come across as having any big celebrity air even though he’s a top Hollywood name.
He also discusses his love of architecture and how he came into it after taking the author on a tour of the property (lucky!):
Pitt says he found a new path for himself when, in 1995, he bought a historic property in West Los Angeles that needed work and, by restoring it, discovered his love of architecture and design. He is a whiz at both, and it shows.
Immensely house-proud, Pitt takes me on a tour of his property—two early 20th-century Craftsman houses, a kids’ playhouse, two pools, and an artificial waterfall that conceals a secret stone grotto. The last, he confides, “is a great place for sex.” The entire property is walled with fences and hedges and overlooks the city.
“This was my first architectural experience where I tried doing something myself,” Pitt says. “It is something I wanted to do for decades. This is like play to me. It’s the only thing that can take me away from any problems I may have. After a few years of work, it came out so nice. Now I’ve got so many damn kids, it’s the only place we could all fit in. We’re double-bunking rooms as it is.”
It’s so great when you can have the opportunity to do something that you love. I think it would be awesome if Brad would design a new home for his family!
I think my favorite part of the entire article is when they’re leaving the master suite and run into Angelina Jolie with Zahara and Shiloh. Apparently Angie was wearing a black body stocking, a yellow clown-style wig, and both the girls had blue hair. They were playing dress-up after a visit to a costume store.
See? The world might see Angelina Jolie dressed to kill on the red carpet but at home she’s just Mom, playing dress-up and probably looking adorably silly. Love it!
An interesting point that comes up in the article is the idea of base camp homes vs. their primary home. Brad describes the L.A. home as just a base camp, while the article goes on to refer to their home in France – Miraval, I presume – as their principal residence. I guess that sheds some light on the rumors that they’re looking to purchase Miraval (the house itself at least, not necessarily the vineyards) and would explain the renovations.
Returning to talk of his kids, Brad explained how they work with the international nature of their family, mentioning that they have projects of some sort in each of their home countries (such as the clinic in Ethiopia) and that they stress the importance of them learning their native languages.
When the author notes that he appears to be very happy, Brad says he is happy because he has love in his life. Then he adds, “As I’ve gotten older, I’ve become aware that time is fleeting. I don’t want to waste whatever I have left. I want to spend it with the people I love, and I want to do things that really mean something.”
The entire article just fills me with so much joy. It always makes me happy to hear when someone else is so obviously happy too. I’m glad that Brad did this interview with Parade because as much as I love hearing his movie-centric interviews for promotional purposes, I really enjoyed being able to get a glimpse into the more personal side of Brad and his relationship with Angelina and his kids. Generally it’s Angelina who is more open in her interviews so it was wonderful to see a more wide-open Brad.
There’s also a fantastic slideshow of exclusive photos of Brad Pitt over here to check out. My favorites are #3 and #6, what are yours? Enjoy your reading!
i like the interview.totally love brad.
Here are some pics from x17 of brad and diane kruger getting ready to promote IB.
http://x17online.com/celebrities/brad_pitt/brad_pitt_spends_time_with_his_sexy_costar-08092009.php
Thanks again, Sherry, for your great work. Thanks, JM, for the link, and Neer for the fantastic list (you’re like the unofficial Pittwatch archivist!
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I <3 the interview and second everyone’s comments. Only thing I didn’t like = still so much educating to do (in this case, of the interviewer) about not favoring biological children over adopted ones, and in this case it becomes DOUBLE PROBLEM since the adopted children are of color and the biological ones are white.
First mention of the kids, 3rd paragraph: 3rd child, 1st biological – “Their daughter Shiloh was born in 2006.” 5th & 6th children, 2nd & 3rd biological – “Last year they had twins, Vivienne Marcheline and Knox.” Oh,and BTW, as an afterthought – “ They also have three adopted children: Maddox, 8, Pax, 5, and Zahara, 4.”
I hope Brad drops a discreet note to or phones Dot – something like he knows it wasn’t deliberate, but just for future reference adoptive parents consider all their kids, adopted/biological, their kids. Dot should have listed the kids from oldest to youngest, and in the course of the article – which is done later – mention which countries Maddox/Pax/Zahar are from.
OTish – the interview *is* promoting IB: Looks like Brad made another interesting career choice!
http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompsononhollywood/2009/08/08/inglourious_basterds_recut_nine_clips/pem
“It’s a gorgeous movie with a great eclectic soundtrack crammed with everything from Ennio Morricone to a brilliant use of David Bowie’s “Putting Out the Fire.”
“Now that I knew what it was, I could settle in and enjoy the pleasures of a Tarantino film. Going in, most people are expecting a World War II war movie starring bad-ass Nazi Hunter Brad Pitt, but there’s not much of that. It’s a segmented, five-part drama shot in different styles. Part one is genius, the most overt homage to Sergio Leone. Part two is more Guns of Navarone, then you get into the French New Wave, etc. Tarantino is in love with each and every one of his characters and set-pieces and lets them play out. He thinks we’re just as interested as he is. Inglourious Basterds is great fun—for cinephiles. It’s not a mainstream movie.”
(Thanks, Angela! Finally got my avatar up!)
UNDER MOD: OTish – the interview *is* promoting IB: Looks like Brad made another interesting career choice!
http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompsononhollywood/2009/08/08/inglourious_basterds_recut_nine_clips/pem
It has link to 9 IB clips.
there are some pictures in NOLA at the MIR site. In one of the pictures, you can see Ann Curry. I think there might be an interview for MIR coming up. Good Brad is using his film to promote MIR again.
Ligaya- I agree! I wonder why so many magazines do this with the J-P kids (and I’m talking about legimite magazines here. Obviously the tabs shouldn’t be taken seriously anyway, hence the fact that they also differeniate between the kids is also pretty moot!)?
Neer – thank you so much for the list – an extraordinary one! And, for the dinner images as well! Great work!
Sherry, thank you for the Parade article – you are great as always!
that was some very interesting pieces about Brad and the fact he’s a serious family man and devoted spouse.to me i say spouse because to them no license or paper can justify their feelings for each other,and we as fans should be greatful that two famous individuals can be happy despite someone else negative statements about the none existance of a marriage license.i’m a big fan of both brad & angie, and i say be happy and god bless your fan
People magazine does it right. I was just reading something the other day about Maddox and Brad. People just identified Maddox as Brad’s oldest son – didn’t say he was adopted or Cambodian. I remember reading about famous people’s children and later finding out they were adopted and/or not of the same race. It’s important, but what’s more important is the family relationship.