Brad Pitt: The Rolling Stone Interview

Had you read Fitzgerald's short story?
No, I still haven't read it. I was told it had nothing to do with the movie, really. I was moving full-steam on Eric's version, which he based on that saying "Youth is wasted on the young."

Were you concerned at all about the technical side of things? Other than Interview With the Vampire, I can't think of many movies where you even had to wear serious makeup.
Man, I swore I would never do prosthetics. I've done some glue-on beards, and they're not fun. Then Fincher came with this one and I said, "I'm in." One of his other great talents is subverting and perverting whatever existing technology there is to his own evil devices. So there was never a question, for me, about whether it would work. He did something very smart. He said, "We're not going to develop new technology. We're going to take the technology that's there for gaming and for special-effects, blow-up-the-world movies, and use that technology for small details — pupils dilating, aging." And the makeup guys were so good; wearing this stuff all day was surprisingly comfortable. [Pause] But, no, I won't do it again.

Did making this movie make you think about your own mortality?
Well, yeah. And I'm scared to death of it. But, you know, it made me think of things like... [Pause] Angie and I do not fight anymore. What occurred to me on this film, and also with the passing of her mother, is that there's going to come a time when I'm not going to get to be with this person anymore. I'm not going to get to be with my children anymore. Or friends, people I love and respect. And so, if we have a flare-up, it evaporates now.

Would that have been different two years ago?
Well, I think it must have been heading this way. But something crystallized for me. I don't want to waste time being angry at someone I love much more than, than... not. And again, there's going to be a time. This thing is fragile, and there's a ticking clock on it, and whether it be death or what, there's just going to come that time. So this movie changed that for me.

Aside from Tyler Durden, the other character everyone said was basically you, at least when the film came out, was your character in Thelma & Louise, your first big role, where you played this sort of lovable rogue.
I don't know what a lovable rogue is. [Laughs, then long pause] I don't know how to answer that. I'll just say that, when I first read the part, I knew I could whip it. So I understood the character, whatever that means. And that film was certainly the break you're always looking for.

You'd been out in Hollywood for a while at that point. Did you have moments of losing hope as an actor?
I'm sure I did. I got this agent, where they agreed to try me out in this thing called a side pocket. That means they're not signing you to anything. They're going to try it out for a month or two and see if it pays off. It was a fairly reputable agency, but they wanted me to do sitcoms. But I kept pushing: "Please send me out on some movies." They sent me out for two. One was The Accused. Then I called up. The agent wouldn't get on the phone with me, but the assistant did. I said, "How did it go?" She said, "Have you ever thought about acting classes?"

Oh, man.
It was the best thing I heard, though, because it put me in a tailspin for about a half hour. Then it made me more determined to figure out what I had to learn.

Do you know what's become of that assistant?
[Laughs] Yes! Doing quite well, actually.

Did you see Pineapple Express?
Yeah. Laughed my ass off.

James Franco said he was inspired by your small role as Floyd the stoner in True Romance.
For that one, I did a lot of studying. Everyone's met a Floyd. Or been a Floyd. It's either the roommate you were trying to get rid of, or you were that roommate.

But originally, Floyd wasn't going to be a stoner.
No. I called up [director] Tony Scott a couple of days before, because I couldn't figure out why the character talked so much and gave everyone up. I said, "Can he never get off the couch?" "OK." "Can he be a stoner?" "Yeah." And that was it.

Did the idea come to you when you were high?
[Laughs] Of course not! It was in acting class, doing a character breakdown. Tony's the one who came up with the honey-bear bong. That was a great touch — not mine. They are creative, though, stoners. But only when it comes to smoking — one purpose. [Assuming hoarse stoner voice, looks around trailer] "We could turn this Winnebago into a bong."

One of your next big films was Interview With the Vampire, which, like Benjamin Button, was shot in part in New Orleans.
Yeah, that was my first time in New Orleans. Vampire was a tough shoot. I finished Legends of the Fall and went straight into that. First of all, the whole thing was in the dark. In New Orleans, we shot for three months in the dark — we shot all nights. There's an opening scene in the movie that's daylight, and that's it. The whole movie is in the dark. And it really started to mess with my psyche.