Brad Pitt

Emmanuel Itier: Though set over 100 years ago, this film comments on celebrity culture and mythologizing of famous people. Is that what attracted you to the character? Do you see him a vicious psychopath?

Brad Pitt: That’s not what completely attracted me (to the role). I don’t think that’s the main point of the story, which Andrew can articulate better than any one of us up here. I do think it’s an aspect of it, certainly. Getting into the story, I was surprised to see how much a tabloid quotient that media was alive and well at that time. Still operated with sensationalism and fabrication of the facts. It was curious to me to see not much has changed.

EI: Do you see him as psychopathic?

BP: The film picks up during the last year of his life, and he certainly was coming from a place of paranoia–most of it justified. I’d argue that the paranoia consumed him, and certainly was responsible for a lot of his erratic actions. It’s also true that while there is the Robin Hood myth to him, which was based in truth and he did help perpetuate, it is also true to say he was a ruthless killer before the film starts.

EI: Why tell the story again?

BP: I only understood the myth we wrote–the American folklore. Andrew can answer this.

Andrew Dominik: The characters were really good, and the book is beautiful. You’ve got characters that are struggling with themselves. They’re rich. What it didn’t have was a plot.

DeDe Gardner: It’s about human behavior more than names or legends. It takes great effort to suggest not just a name or a legend. There are people behind those names. They have feelings and they’re fallable. It felt real and timeless.

Jules Daly: I knew nothing about what the relationship between Jesse James and Robert Ford was, so that was something interesting for me.

EI: How was it shooting in Canada?

BP: Funny enough, it was shot close to the location where I shot, ten years before, a film called Legends of the Fall. We had a lot of the same crew, stuntmen and wranglers that I worked with before. We originally came here for Legends because there’s one huge place where there are no telephone poles. Now you can just erase those. Coming back to the location shapes the feeling of the film. It’s as much a character as anything Casey or I did. It’s nice to be back.

EI: How much do you long for anonymity? How do you relate to people in Missouri?

BP: A lot of my family is still in Missouri, so when I do get home and bring the grandkids back, it’s mainly spending time with family. It’s a gentle, sweet place to be. As far as (anonymity), I know the deal. I understand the tradeoff. There are great perks to what we do. We get to travel the world. The only time it becomes unmanageable is when it becomes a full frontal assault on the kids. You make a crazy face, and that’s the one that ends up on the front page. Unfortunately, there’s no line concerning family these days, and that concerns me. This day and age, that’s the only thing that bothers me.

EI: What about the lingering on Casey Affleck’s face?

AD: Casey would get real upset if we cut away. [Jokes]

Casey Affleck: They put the camera on you for the duration of the scene. However long it’s left on is up to Andrew. I had nothing to do with that. It wasn’t always easy. It came through with Andrew–what the character was feeling, not only the research but an intuitive understanding of the characters. I relied on him as a guide sometimes. Sometimes, I had my own sense of what he was doing from scene to scene.

BP: A lot of us have known Casey for many years and have been big fans of him and known him to be much more than the parts he’s been able to play, so we’re really happy to see him win this opportunity because it was a coveted role, working with Andrew, and because it was such a big role. To see him score like this is really rewarding to all of us. He did an amazing job. It’s going to be nice to see what else he does.

EI: Did you imagine living your life under the microscope and ever wish you played your cards differently?

BP: Funny enough, the microscope is really not on us. It has nothing to do with my actual life. In some ways, you say you made this deal, so that’s part of it. On the other hand, you don’t know what you’re getting into. The bonus of that time is the love for movies, to be a part of movies, and tell stories and be good at it. That’s your focus. This other thing comes along and it can be discombobulating, but you acclimate.

EI: What are the challenges of working in the cold locations?

AD: When it gets cold in Calgary, you’ve got to dress like an astronaut to work. It was a great place to work. Crews were fantastic. The sun takes three hours to set. It was fantastic.

BP: It wasn’t challenging. It’s something that becomes part of the day, the scene, and I guess to be in films, you have to be a bit adventurous. It’s part of the draw.

EI: Andrew, people might be surprised coming out of this because they’re not familiar with your work.

BP: If you haven¹t seen Chopper, well, you haven¹t seen Chopper. You should see it. It’s Mean Streets good in my book.

AD: I had final cut, but it’s an idiosyncratic movie. There’s not much you can do to change it. There were the usual squabbles that you have when everyone feels passionate about the film. Everyone here has given blood to the movie in one way or another. They’ve been unhealthily involved. The film seems to be going over well, and that’s great. It’s a difficult film, but everybody has been supportive at the studio. They gave us $35 million to make a weird movie.

BP: And a lot of time to get it right.

EI: Was that why it was delayed a year?

BP: It wasn’t delayed a year.

AD: The film wasn’t going to pull together in the ten weeks we had to cut the picture. It’s based on the emotional energies of each scene building the right way. The performances are really complex. You’ve got to get that stuff balanced. It’s a full movie.

EI: Did you feel pressure to give this film social relevance to today?

AD: I don’t think human beings have changed much in 2,000 years. The people in the story feel human to me. You just make a film that you’d like to see and hope that other people will like to see it too.

EI: Do you consider this movie a Western?

BP: It’s probably misleading as far as the genre, we understand. It’s better to say a psychological drama. Andrew has called it a gangster film. It’s hard to come up with one category that accurately describes it. It’s all about a good trailer.

EI: Is it strange to play 5 (foot) 8 (inches)?

BP: No.

EI: How did you get into the Jesse James history?

BP: The nice thing for me, that I was surprised by–I didn’t realize that it would mean this much to me–was doing something that related to the area where I grew up. When I see the Missouri Crawl come up on screen, it quietly gives me a little pleasure. It’s nice to see some connection to the place that shaped me.

EI: Did you take home the character?

BP: No. I hear stories of actors not being able to put away the role, but that’s never been my affliction. I usually have more difficulty getting into a role. I’m very happy to put it down. The mercurial aspect of the characters was what was so interesting to me. I relied on Andrew to keep the reins on that.

EI: Andrew, why use narration on the soundtrack? Actors working on scenes where thoughts are being explained?

AD: We knew (the voiceovers) were going to be there. That’s the way the book was. It’s a tragedy. We know how it’s going to end–it’s just a question of how. I’m writing it from a point of view of providing a sense of fatalism. I like the fairy tale-ish quality.

EI: Why does Jesse let himself get shot at the end?

BP: This is well-documented in the book. Historians argue over it. There’s curiosity about it. The fact is he gave the gift of the gun to his would-be assassin–the very gun that would kill him days later, and the fact that he took his gun belts off at the moment of the assassination, which he never did. The two theories are that he had full knowledge of what Robert Ford or the Ford brothers were capable of and were after, and he was taunting them and was going to take them out at a later time, and it was a bad gamble that he lost. The other argument is that he was unhinged, he was weary of this life on the run, and that it was a puppeteered suicide, conscious or unconscious. It remains ambiguous, and I couldn’t pretend to know.

EI: Playing Jesse, did you have an opinion?

BP: I kind of played with both and trusted Andrew to shape it as what played best.

EI: Brad, the gun you had had the actual serial number of Jesse’s gun and the ring with the inscription. Why was it important to have those with you? Did they help you with the character?

BP: These are things that don’t amount to anything on film, except that it was important to the actor. They were little things that meant something to me that made it feel a bit authentic. It’s silly–maybe a little superstitious, it sounds from the outside, but for me it made sense.

EI: Did you keep the ring?

BP: No.

EI: Were you concerned about the incident in Venice where a female fan lunged at you?

BP: I haven’t been jumped like that in some time. I don’t want to change my life to give in to paranoia. We can be vulnerable in these situations, and there are a couple of people out there not playing with a full deck, but I’m not changing a thing.

EI: Is the Venice award the biggest? How much do awards mean to you?

BP: I don’t know how to rate the importance. I was surprised. I didn’t expect it. This has been a long road, this film. It was an honor for us to unleash it in this great city. I have friends unleashing films in the city. It’s a really nice time for it and for us. To have this happen, it’s great fun.

EI: What about other acting awards?

BP: I got a Golden Globe a decade ago. But it’s never been my focus. At the end of the day, what’s important is giving (my) best. We all do our jobs and want to be really good at it. To have this acknowledgement is a real honor. The nice thing is how excited my friends are for me, including these guys, and to be a part of the lineage of other people who have received this honor.

EI: Does the march to the Oscars start here?

BP: I don’t even play that.

EI: Why do we revere psychopathic serial killers?

AD: I don’t know. They’re fun to watch. I don’t know if I consider Jesse James to be a psychopathic serial killer. I consider him to be someone who has some problems. He seems more well-rounded than that. It’s drama, and drama has conflicts that require people to do things. Jesse is a character that you can have a multitude of feelings about. You can be frightened of him and have feelings of empathy for him. I like to have mixed feelings about the people I watch on screen.

EI: Will we see the longer version on DVD?

BP: The four-and-a-half-hour version?

AD: You’ll never see a four-and-a-half-hour version. I’m not sure if it would be any better than this one.

EI: Was there anything you wished wasn’t taken out?

CA: Not really. I didn’t see too many versions of this. You have to trust that the person who conceived the thing and labored over it, and brought it to life is going to make the best decision about what belongs in the movie and what doesn’t.

BP: If it doesn’t help the overall piece, then it’s gotta go.

EI: What’s your preparation? What new skills did you learn?

BP: My preparation is all the same, whether its comedy or this, or anything else. It comes with research and studying, and you start to narrow in on an idea you’re going to try it. The first few weeks are trial and error. I had an advantage of the scenario. The cadence and the temper of how people relate there, at least what I understand today, is what I drew from, and the dialect I drew from. I was comfortable with horses. Do a little quick draw, and I was ready to go.

EI: What is your opinion of China’s new initiatives on human rights?

BP: I don’t know enough to comment. I need to study it more before I comment on it.

EI: What’s your job as a producer? Did you feel left out on the Oscar for The
Departed?

BP: The Departed was something we developed for a couple of years. When Marty came on, he didn’t need our help. We were happy to turn it over. We were happy just to be a part of it. The thing that got me into (acting) was my love for stories and a film’s ability to educate and entertain. It’s about getting out of the way and letting the producer go where he wants to go. Being a buffer on the financial side is about quality control from its inception.

EI: What’s your favorite George Clooney film?

BP: Red Surf. Go see it.

EI: How was it working in Alberta? (Edmonton Park) Did you have fun picking locations?

AD: A living village from the 1800s–we were thrilled when we found it.

EI: Do you want your kids to act?

CA: I don’t think my son sees me on TV that much. He doesn’t watch TV or know much about it.

BP: It all remains to be seen, but I’d recommend a maturity post-18 before you get into this thing, because it can be discombobulating.

CA: It gets a bad rep, but there are a lot of interesting, creative people. You’re lucky to be in this profession, where you’re thinking of stories and working with talented, fun, nice people.

EI: Do you and Angelina accept each other’s constructive criticism?

BP: Yeah–in fact, I rely on it. She’s the best sounding board I have, and I value her opinion immensely. It pisses me off sometimes, but she’s good. She loves the film.

EI: What was the most difficult sequence?

BP: It was more overall keeping the reigns on this character. With Andrew, I was in good hands. We had a night scene that was a beautiful scene, that was not in the film.

EI: Is it time to do animation?

BP: I think it’s more confusing for the kids. I’d rather keep it simple and they can enjoy their cartoons.

EI: What kind of film is more important to you?

BP: I love this kind of film–this kind of film that breathes and allows for human moments. It’s my favorite kind of storytelling. It led me to Andrew. I like all films, and there’s room for all kinds of films. I’d probably hit the wall if I just focused on one aspect of storytelling.