Brad Pitt: More Than a Pretty Face (2022) Movie Script
(pensive music)
(pensive music continues)
(audience cheering)
(Oprah screaming)
- [Narrator] The most
desirable man in the world is
about to appear on the most
watched TV show in America.
- Please welcome Brad Pitt!
(audience cheering)
- [Narrator] Brad Pitt's story
could begin here in 1998,
in the excitement of a glamorous decade
of which he was the then sex symbol.
The image is a precious one.
It enables us to see how far he has come
from this pretty boy object of desire
to the iconic actor snapped up
by Hollywood's greatest filmmakers.
- Welcome to Fight Club.
(bullet casing clattering)
- [Narrator] A world famous personality
whose star has never waned.
- I think this just
might be my masterpiece.
- [Narrator] An ideal trajectory
except for one detail,
this perfection that
weighs on him like a curse.
- Look at you. You're perfect.
(audience cheering)
- [Narrator] Since this show,
has Brad Pitt's story really evolved?
(paparazzi clamoring)
In the eyes of the public,
has he ever embodied anything other
than this male blonde beauty?
(paparazzi clatter)
(people cheering)
Have three decades of cinema been enough
to fracture this image,
which while being the key
to his phenomenal success,
has become a burden?
(pensive music continues)
(pensive music continues)
(car starting)
(wind rushing)
(wind whooshing)
Brad Pitt's birth in the cinema came
in 1991 in the role of a hitchhiker.
(Thelma whimpering)
- Alright, alright, Thelma. Alright.
- [Narrator] In "Thelma
& Louise," the story
of two women embarked on a road trip,
he embodies temptation, in the form
of this sexy, young drifter.
(twangy country music)
(vehicle accelerating)
- So, JD.
- Yeah.
- What are you studying in school?
- Uh, human nature. Oh, look.
Yeah. I'm a, I'm a...
Majoring in behavioral science.
You know? You're okay.
- [Narrator] With his
Stetson and Southern drawl,
the actor is disconcertingly natural,
as Ridley Scott recalls.
- [Brad] Hi. Excuse me, ma'am.
- Brad just came up in the casting session
and Lou DiGiaimo and I...
Lou was casting for me,
and he was it, really, instantly.
There was no second thoughts about that.
(tense country music)
- Well, it opened the doors for me,
and half this business is the lotto.
There's a lot of talented
people out there,
and because of that, I've
been given the opportunity
to grow and hone the craft, so to speak.
But Ridley Scott's giving
me that shot with Geena,
opened the door, let me in the game.
You're goin' my way, or
am I goin' your way...
- I think we're goin' to Oklahoma City...
- Seriously?
- But I'm not sure.
- [Narrator] Brad Pitt's natural ease
in portraying this character
could perhaps be due
to the fact that both men
hail from the same America.
Oklahoma City, where the
character in the film is headed,
is precisely the place where
the actor was born in 1963.
He'll spend his childhood
not far from there,
a little further up Route
66 in Springfield, Missouri,
a medium-sized town in
the American Midwest.
(birds tweeting)
(pensive music)
The eldest of three children,
Brad Pitt was raised
in a peaceful suburban
neighborhood, in an ideal family,
such as Springfield prides
itself on attracting.
(children chattering)
(vehicle accelerating)
Every weekend, the Pitts
would go to the Ozarks,
a particularly well-preserved
mid-mountain range.
- [Brad] I came out from the Ozarks.
It's Mark Twain country.
It's Jesse James country, a
lot of hills, a lot of lakes.
I got my first BB gun preschool.
(cows lowing)
- [Narrator] Here, the
young boy is immersed
in an America untouched by modernity,
unchanged since the days of
Jesse James, a local legend
whose stories lulled
young Americans to sleep.
(horse gallops and whinnies)
(gunshots ringing out)
A Midwest frozen in time, very attracted
to its folklore and to its image
of the American Garden of Eden.
(explosion clamoring)
(horse whinnying)
(projector whirring)
Around the age of 10,
he discovers the cinema.
(20th Century Fox fanfare)
Every Saturday, he devours
the movies shown there,
particularly Westerns, such as
"Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,"
in which a certain Robert
Redford fascinates him.
- Think you used enough
dynamite there, Butch?
(gunshots ringing out)
(gunshots ringing out)
(20th Century Fox fanfare)
(gunshots ringing out)
- [Narrator] It's from
this film loving youth
that his desire to
become an actor is born.
And just before graduating
from college, he'll draw up the courage
to leave Missouri without
even telling his parents.
(school bell ringing)
(impactful music)
- [Brad] I packed up my
car. I didn't graduate.
I had two weeks left,
and I moved out to LA.
I get there with, like the cliche goes,
with my beat up Datsun,
and I had $275 to my savings.
(impactful music continues)
Well, I knew where I wanted
to go. I had a direction.
I always liked those moments of epiphany
when you have the next destination.
- [Narrator] Direction, Hollywood to meet
the outside world and
his destiny as an actor.
- [Brad] I landed in Burbank,
and I got the paper
and I found some extra agencies.
And by the end of that week, I was...
I paid my 25 bucks to join up,
and I was an extra.
- [Narrator] Brad Pitt
then experiences the life
of thousands of other aspiring
actors, sharing lodgings
and starting at the bottom...
(upbeat music)
Commercials, soap operas,
TV movies, sitcoms.
Having never taken any
acting classes, he finds work
in television, where
demand was at its highest.
I said yeah
Yeah
- [Narrator] Brad Pitt lands a small role
in the TV series "Dallas,"
which gets him noticed.
Yeah, yeah
- I'm Randy.
Nice to meet you, sir.
(static crackling)
(funky music)
- [Newscaster] Well,
it's no secret anymore.
Brad Pitt's made two
of the last five issues
of "People Magazine."
He is what "Star Magazine" calls
the "hunky new 'Dallas' star."
- It's just been snowballing like this,
and that's what I'm talking about,
about being taken care
of because there's no way
that someone in my position,
a dork from Missouri,
who had no training should be...
I don't know. I just feel really thankful.
- [Newscaster] It happens, though.
- Thanks!
She's so nice.
- [Narrator] But the
euphoria will be short-lived.
The snowball effect that he talks
about here remains limited
to the small screen.
After five years of minor
roles, there are no signs
that his fate will be
any different to that
of his former roommate, Jason Priestley,
a Beverly Hills star
who would never make it
to the silver screen.
("Beverly Hills 90210" theme song)
(static crackling)
Television, which was
supposed to bring him closer
to his dream, takes him
farther away from it.
Brad Pitt begins to resign himself.
- [Interviewer] Go ahead.
- Well, unfortunately a lot of television
for me is a fast food fashion show.
A lot of it.
And it's because of money and time
and I understand it has to be that way,
but it gets kind of frustrating.
That's me though. I'm
not paying the bills.
(energetic rock music)
- [Narrator] Out of necessity, he lends
his male model physique
to a banal commercial,
little suspecting that it would change
the course of his career.
It's in this non-speaking
role, requiring minimum effort
that he'll be spotted
for "Thelma & Louise."
Everything's fine
In fact, the young
actor's physical presence
alone was enough to get him noticed.
Nothing's more eloquent than a body
naturally made for the movies.
Ah
- Then I just kind of
waltz on in and I say-
- [Narrator] His big screen
debut is thus due entirely
and solely to his physique.
This is evidenced by the
care taken by Ridley Scott
for this memorable love scene,
which required three days of shooting.
- Oh.
- Ooh.
- [Geena] Ridley personally
applied the Evian spray
to Brad's stomach,
which was about the moment
that I started thinking,
"Hi. I'm in the scene and I'm the girl."
(tense rock music)
- [Narrator] As Geena Davis recounts,
the director pays so much attention to him
that the actor becomes
the center of the scene,
disputing the place of object of desire,
traditionally assigned
to the female character.
Entering the film as an unknown,
he'll come out of it a sex symbol.
(sweeping music)
A year later, Brad Pitt
appears in the cast
of "A River Runs Through It."
(idyllic music)
(water rippling)
- [Norman] My brother Paul
and I grew up in a time
when the land was still untouched.
- [Narrator] A story of
brothers in the bucolic setting
of an America of yesteryear
that echoes his own youth.
(idyllic music swells)
- [Announcer] It's the classic
story of an American family
from Academy Award-winning
director Robert Redford.
(Robert directing indistinctly)
- [Narrator] The film is
directed by his childhood idol,
quite a symbol for the young actor.
Hollywood, in person, has
opened its doors to him.
- [Brad] Well, I actually
heard about it about a year
before, and I heard Robert
Redford was doing a film
about two brothers in Montana,
and it was those three
elements right there.
- [Narrator] This is the first
episode in a relationship
that's destined to continue.
(dramatic music)
10 years later, the two men will co-star
in the spy film, "Spy Game,"
which sees Redford's character passing
the torch to Pitt, his heir.
(energetic electronic music)
- So when do I get my first assignment?
- When I decide you're ready.
(film spinning and clicking)
- [Narrator] But in the early 90s,
Brad isn't quite there yet.
- You have a lot of scenes
on the river, in the river.
- [Brad] Yeah, thank God. That's alright.
- You like that?
- Look, I grew up in the Ozarks,
so, I'm gonna do alright.
Better than a sound stage. Sure do.
- [Narrator] Brad Pitt Pitt
has understood the lesson.
The less he talks, the
more convincing he is.
But there's another law.
The industry is quick to label you.
(wood cracking)
(wood cracking)
(Tristan grunting)
"Legends of the Fall" enlists him again
as the face of an idealized America
and of the folklore of his childhood.
(tranquil orchestral music)
Already the actor is
trapped in a stereotype,
that of the country boy, eyed
greedily, like a delicacy.
(horse whinnying)
- And does he speak English? (chuckling)
- [Narrator] Just a few films suffice
to make him the embodiment
of virginal beauty.
And of a Hollywoodian glamour returned
to its state of grace.
In 1994, for its promotion,
"Interview with the Vampire"
counts on the teaming up
of the two sexiest male
stars of their generation.
- [Movie Announcer] Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt.
"Interview with the Vampire."
(unsettling music)
- [Narrator] But the two headliners aren't
at the same stage.
Tom Cruise, then in search
of complex roles, is seeking
to shed his playboy image.
(unsettling music continues)
His bite here is that of
an actor freeing himself
from his burden by
inflicting it on another.
(unsettling music continues)
(keyboard keys clacking)
Brad Pitt inherits from his screen partner
a title he could well have done without.
(tense music)
The Faustian pact suddenly reveals
the other side of the coin.
His status as a sex symbol is a dead end.
- God.
- What is that?
(fan chuckling)
(fans chuckling)
Who is that?
- [Narrator] It's up
to him to find the film
that will free him from this glossy image.
- [Paparazzo] Paparazzi TV.
(tense music continues)
(thunder rolling)
(ominous music)
(siren blaring)
- Just like the film's
groundbreaking opening credits,
"Seven" is his act of rebellion.
(ominous music continues)
That of a stereotyped actor eager
to dirty his pretty face in the blackness
of a neo noir thriller.
(rain pattering)
(ominous music continues)
The film follows the investigation
of two detectives on the trail
of a serial killer whose
murders are inspired
by the seven deadly sins.
- You were right.
- [Sommerset] Mm?
- (grunting) He's preaching.
- Yeah. His murders are his sermons to us.
(ominous music continues)
- [Narrator] The opportunity for Brad Pitt
to rub shoulders with an
unwholesome universe imbued
with religious fanaticism, which
interests him particularly.
For the kid from Missouri, this
element has its importance.
(bells pealing)
(cars accelerating)
(somber evangelical music)
Springfield, his childhood town,
is located in the Bible Belt,
a vast area in the southern United States
where Protestant
fundamentalism is practiced.
The Pitt siblings were
raised in the Baptist faith,
the strictest branch of Protestantism.
(bells pealing)
- [Brad] We grew up Southern Baptist.
It was Sunday school and do good
and Bible study and daily prayer.
(somber evangelical music continues)
- [Narrator] A docile
and churchgoing childhood
where religion is law.
Brad Pitt will be the
only one in his family
to turn his back on this world.
- [Brad] I was very
curious about the world,
even at a young age, and I became aware
that other nations and other
cultures didn't believe
the same, and they believed
in different religions.
And my question is,
"Well, why don't they get
to go to heaven then?"
And the answer was always,
"Well, everyone gets a chance."
(bells pealing)
- [Narrator] "Seven" represents
what Brad Pitt dreamed
of doing by fleeing the Bible Belt.
Films that expose the violence of America
and the puritanism that he knows so well.
The moral values of which sometimes serve
as an excuse for the worst acts.
(haunting music)
- I won't deny my own personal desire
to turn each sin against the sinner.
- Wait a minute.
I thought all you did
was kill innocent people.
- Innocent? Is that supposed to be funny?
An obese man? A disgusting
man who could barely stand up?
- Yeah.
(clapperboard clapping)
- [Narrator] The same year as "Seven,"
the actor seizes the
opportunity to collaborate
with former Monty Python
member Terry Gilliam.
- [Terry] We decided he really
had to train for this role
because his voice didn't have
the qualities needed to do it.
And Brad worked really hard at this.
- Walking around like
this, like this, like this.
And they need to know, and
they need to know something.
You gotta tell 'em. You gotta wake 'em up.
You gotta go one, two, three, four,
one, two, three, four.
- [Narrator] He learns to use
his physique not only
for its photogenicity,
but as an instrument in its own right.
- Suddenly I felt like
bending the fucking bars back!
And ripping out the goddamn
window frames and eating them!
Yes, eating them! And
leaping, leaping, leaping!
Colonics for everyone!
(audience cheering)
(celebratory music)
- [Narrator] Winning a Golden Globe award
for Best Supporting Actor,
his performance affirms
his ambitions as an actor.
- Thank you "Hollywood Foreign Press"
for this moment of absolute terror.
(audience laughing)
Thank you to Terry Gilliam
for the Terry Gilliam experience.
Yeah.
(audience cheering)
One that won't be forgotten.
(static crackling)
(pensive music)
- [Narrator] But the new
direction taken in "Seven" isn't
enough to erase the primary
reasons for his success.
- [Interviewer] What's the secret
to being the sexiest man alive?
- Man, if I knew, listen...
(interviewer laughing)
I don't know how
that happened, that debacle,
(interviewer laughing)
but I'm sure it's all evil,
(interviewer chuckling)
and I try to stay away from it.
(foreshadowing music)
- [Narrator] An evil curse.
The actor couldn't have put it better.
In the year 2000, five years
after winning the title,
Brad Pitt will be the first personality
to be elected sexiest man
alive for the second time.
- [Announcer] It's the one you've
all been asking for.
(crowd cheering)
(Oprah screaming)
Brad Pitt.
(crowd chattering)
- [Narrator] Since "Thelma & Louise,"
Brad-mania has reached
uncontrollable proportions.
(paparazzi chattering)
The darkness of his last roles wasn't
enough to break the spell.
The actor remains, first and
foremost, an object of desire.
- I love Brad Pitt.
I've loved you since my freshman year
of high school, and I
wanna meet you so bad.
- I think he's got a really cute nose.
(teen laughing)
It's so cute!
- [Narrator] On the screen,
a scene is always used
as a pretext to undress
him, to inspect him
from every angle, as if
the industry was eager
to show off its most beautiful product.
(funky music)
(static crackling)
At the end of the 1990s, Brad Pitt is more
than ever the face of
this marketing of glamour.
(funky music continues)
Sitcoms, commercials, boy
bands, porn, soap operas,
platinum locks at all hours.
Barbie dolls on every channel.
The sex symbol of "Thelma
& Louise" has become
the flagship product of this decade
of excessive desirability.
Sexy overdone to a ridiculous extreme
as this love scene
wonderfully illustrates,
where he finds himself stripped
for the umpteenth time,
like the unpacking of a figurine.
(audience cheering)
- Yes.
- That movie's two hours and 45 minutes,
and they had to take that clip.
- [Oprah] Yeah.
(audience laughing)
(discordant music)
- [Brad] The strangest thing
is suddenly being looked
at and watched and judged in a way.
I mean, I don't know what I was expecting.
You're putting yourself in that ring.
I just didn't think that far ahead.
And I found it very discombobulating.
I was very, very uncomfortable
with the focus.
(audience cheering)
I think one of the lovely things
about where I grew up is
it's considered great hubris
to talk about yourself.
- 'Cause there are scenes
in "Meet Joe Black,"
for example, when you guys
are saying absolutely nothing.
I don't know where they have that camera.
Is it like on your forehead
(Brad laughing)
or on her forehead?
'Cause this is some of the
closest closeups I've ever seen,
where you're just really nice to look
at and to look into your eyes.
(discordant music)
- [Narrator] Just shut up
and look pretty is the price
to pay for his pact with success.
- You look too skinny, though.
- Thanks, Katie.
- You're always looking too skinny.
Are you not eating?
- You say that every time.
- I know. But you are.
I realize-
- [Narrator] Show business
doesn't care how good
an actor he is, so long
as he remains this poster boy
available to his audience.
- You should do a
romantic comedy sometime.
Something sort of light and airy and-
- I've thought about it. I don't know.
I'll feel it out.
- Yeah. You sort of just
see what comes your way.
- [Brad] Yeah.
- What are you working on now?
- I'm working on a thing
called "The Fight Club."
- [Katie] And tell me about that.
- I want you to hit me as hard as you can.
- [Katie] What's it about?
- What?
- I want you to hit me as hard as you can.
That's David Fincher
directing. He directed "Seven."
It's about two guys who start
this amateur boxing league
for underprivileged youth and the woman
who comes between 'em.
- [Katie] Ah.
- But we twist it a bit.
(Tyler grunting)
(blow landing)
(Tyler sputtering)
(blow landing)
- Ah, okay, okay, okay. I got it.
I got it. I got it.
Shit. I lost it.
(Tyler grunting)
(Tyler laughing)
- [Narrator] Violent, insolent, vulgar,
"Fight Club" deceives all expectations.
The film is a masochistic comedy
with, as a kind of running gag,
the presence of the sexiest man alive
here to get beaten to a pulp.
Here, above all, to have
this perfect body explore
all its possible states.
Pummeled in a car wreck,
burnt with acid,
emptied of its fluids,
doused with fat,
pierced with a bullet.
"Seven" was an attempt to damage him.
"Fight Club" is successful.
The film exhibits Brad Pitt not as a star,
but as a body, filled
with blood, organs, sweat,
and sexual savagery on a scale never
before tolerated in Hollywood.
- What are you doing?
- Just going to bed.
(Marla moaning)
You wanna finish her off?
(Marla clattering)
- [Narrator] The actor
enjoys himself like rarely
before, pushing the
limits of offensiveness
and blocking the studio censorship,
as David Fincher reveals.
(bell dinging)
- [David] This is Brad's
idea, the rubber glove,
where he kind of points in the background
and says, "You wanna finish her off?"
And I remember the
studio came back saying,
"You have to get rid of that.
There's no way. That is not funny.
It is too awful. You had to
put a rubber glove on him."
I said, "That was Brad's idea. Tell him.
If you got a problem with
it, you should call him."
- [Narrator] The film
pokes funded everything,
starting with Brad Pitt.
(door slamming)
He, the blonde boy
from "Seven Years in Tibet,"
(bell dinging)
the marquee of which appears
mockingly in the background.
He, whose male model body
(bell dinging)
is reflected ironically
in the commercial posters.
(passengers coughing)
- I felt sorry for guys packed into gyms,
trying to look like how Calvin Klein
or Tommy Hilfiger said they should.
Is that what a man looks like.
- (chuckling) Self-improvement
is masturbation.
(bell dinging)
- [Narrator] He, the consumer product
who would have us believe in
his anti-consumerist revolt.
- We've all been raised
on television to believe
that one day we'd all be
millionaires and movie gods
and rock stars, but we won't.
(projector whirring)
- [Narrator] With Brad Pitt
at the helm, the film is a vast deception,
tending more towards a
display of self assassination
and mockery, than the scathing attack
on society it's claimed to be.
- Splicing single frames of pornography
into family films.
(indistinct movie music)
(actress moaning)
(projector whirring)
A nice, big cock.
- [Narrator] After "Fight Club,"
nothing would ever be the same again.
(upbeat music)
(paparazzi clamoring)
Considered too violent on its release,
the film is shunned by the public,
especially women to whom
Brad Pitt owes his success.
This is precisely what the
sex symbol was looking for.
To chip his glamour boy
image, to break the spell.
(crowd cheering)
"Fight Club" sharpens his
sense of self mockery.
In the 2000s, he continues
in this direction
choosing other black comedy films,
directed by filmmakers
whose work he admires,
like Quentin Tarantino
(gunshot ringing out)
or Guy Ritchie.
- The thing is about Brad
Pit is he's very funny,
and I don't think anyone's really
ever capitalized on that before,
but he is a funny bastard,
and it is nice to do something
where he's not taking himself seriously,
and he doesn't take
himself seriously in this.
And it's a bit of a piss-take part.
(crowd cheering)
- In the red corner, we have
the young and unchallenged...
- So, Mick, you're going
down in the fourth.
Is that clear?
- Just make sure he doesn't kill me
before the fuckin' fourth.
- [Narrator] In "Snatch,"
he plays a gypsy boxer
who's impossible to take seriously.
- [Guy] Action!
Cut!
- [Narrator] As shown in
this acrobatic making of,
the actor takes a new step forward
in the physical expression of his art,
having fun with his body to
give a burlesque inflection
to his manly performances,
(snappy jazz music)
somewhere between Rocky
Balboa and Buster Keaton.
(snappy jazz music continues)
(Ethan and Joel laughing)
- That's good.
- The Cohen Brothers then
think of Brad Pitt for the role
of a fitness coach in
"Burn After Reading,"
offering him the opportunity
to push the male dumb blonde stereotype
to its absurd extreme.
(gym member groaning)
- Too much?
- I just felt a straining,
a tightness in the front of my ass.
- I'm gonna check in with my office.
I'll be right back.
When we do, we're gonna
work on opening those hips.
- [Narrator] Delighted by this
infidelity to his own image,
the actor isn't remotely put off
by the extreme idiocy of his character.
Throwing himself into
the role as few stars
of his stature would dare to do.
- Every time I'm afraid that
I'm the biggest knucklehead,
then I see Brad in a
pair of spandex shorts,
and I think, "Well, I'll be okay."
- [Narrator] Blood thirsty,
over the top American.
His character as a Nazi killer
in "Inglourious Basterds"
once again beats records
in outrageousness.
- Each and every man
under my command owes me
100 Nazi scalps, and I want my scalps.
- [Narrator] It's because of this taste
for caricature that Quentin
Tarantino had thought
of him when writing the role.
- One of the biggest reactions
in the movie he did was
completely different
from how I thought it would be,
was his "bonjourno."
In my mind, he pulled it
off a little bit more.
(Brad and Quentin laughing)
And then when he said it that way,
it was at the script reading,
- Yeah, yeah.
- And it just, it killed.
And then after he said it, I was like,
"Well, God, now I can't...
Now you've ruined it for me.
I can't hear it any other way.
I don't have a choice. I
have to do it that way."
(Bridget speaking German)
- Bonjourno.
(Hans speaking Italian)
- [Narrator] Exaggerating
his native accent,
Brad Pitt plays on this
crude American presence
to pull the film towards comedy,
now become his preferred genre.
- Hm.
- Grazie.
- There's just this character and behavior
that comes out, and that can't be written.
The physiology to actually
make the character come alive.
And he's kind of a genius about that.
(melancholy music)
- [Narrator] By poking
fun at his own stereotype
since "Fight Club," Brad Pitt
has fought fire with fire.
At least, that's what he thinks.
Because everything he attempts
to chip his image is invariably turned
around to the benefit of his glamour.
- [Monica] Hey!
- Hey!
(audience cheering)
- [Narrator] His appearance in "Friends,"
alongside Jennifer Aniston, his then wife,
is that of an actor at ease
in the tongue in cheek,
aware of being condemned
to sexy whatever he does.
- God, I hate her Ross.
I hate her!
(audience laughing)
- Wow! Really got that sexy,
smoldering thing going on.
(audience laughing)
God!
- Told you to do that.
- [Narrator] Irony and
coolness are now added
to his physical beauty,
but this insouciance has a price.
(dramatic music)
(paparazzi clamoring)
Promoted by the 90s generation,
the star system was then thriving.
It was a time when certain actors signed
up for 15 years of franchises,
such as Tom Cruise or Johnny Depp.
(crowd cheering)
At the risk, confirmed since then,
of making nothing else but blockbusters.
(dramatic music continues)
- [Nestor] This will be the greatest war
the world has ever seen.
We need the greatest warrior.
(dramatic music continues)
- [Narrator] In the mid 2000s,
Brad Pitt also appears in blockbusters,
(Achilles grunting)
(blade twanging)
but the actor feels limited.
(soldiers cheering)
At 40 years old, this
blondness, this heroism,
this virile manliness takes him back
to the Greek God image he
thought he'd left behind.
Accepted reluctantly due
to a contract binding him
to Warner, "Troy" represents
a turning point for the actor,
but his destiny is written elsewhere,
far from these monumental film shoots.
(dreamy music)
- He was growing into middle age.
- [Film Narrator] He considered
himself a Southern loyalist
and guerilla in a Civil
War that never ended.
He regretted neither his robberies
nor the 17 murders that he laid claim to.
He had seen another summer
under in Kansas City, Missouri.
(dreamy music continues)
- [Narrator] The actor prefers
a personal film project
to an extravagant production.
In the role of Jesse James
in his declining years,
Brad Pitt returns to his native region.
Far from the folklore of his childhood,
the film will portrays the famous outlaw
as a dark and paranoid character,
stripped of the glamour of the myth.
(dreamy music continues)
- And I'll creep up behind that cashier,
and I'll his head back like so,
and I'll say, I'll say,
"How did you get to
reach your 20th birthday
without leaking out all of your clothes?"
And if I don't like his
attitude, I will slit
that field doodle so deep,
he will flop on the floor like fish.
(Robert gasping)
(Jesse laughing)
- So, in the career standpoint-
- Yeah.
- You're gonna make
these movies that you wanna make?
- Yes. Mm hm.
My only barometer at this
point is if I'm proud
of the film, and I think
this is a really good film.
And it's not for everyone, it's for,
what I would call, a connoisseur of film.
But I think of all my favorite films
or most of my favorite films,
the majority of 'em I found
well after their release.
It's a film lovers film.
- [Charlie] Yeah.
- Yeah.
- [Narrator] In addition to an
out of character performance,
the film offers the actor a mirror
in which he sees a reflection of himself.
(wood creaking)
Murdered by an admirer, Jesse James is
here the inverted reflection
of the cowboy drifter
of "Thelma & Louise."
The metaphor of a fame
that has consumed him
since this first success made
him the prey of paparazzi.
(camera snapping)
- [Photographer] Thank
you though very much.
- [Narrator] "The Assassination
of Jesse James" is
a profession of faith, that of an actor,
a film lover, who has also
become the producer of his films.
His personal involvement will be the key
to the success of Plan B,
his production company.
(melancholy piano music)
- I think the original
intention, which I attribute
to Brad really, was to create a harbor,
if you will, a safe
place for original story.
Narrative that hasn't been told before.
Stories that might require
sort of extra safekeeping,
as you keep their original intention pure,
all the way to the screen.
(Andrew talking indistinctly)
- [Narrator] Brad Pitt
is an unfailing support
for filmmakers, such as Andrew Dominik,
all of whose films he'll produce.
(Brad and Andrew chatting indistinctly)
- Well, our relationship
has always been...
He's always performed
the producerial function.
Brad, I think at this stage in his career,
is concerned about his legacy,
and he wants to make...
Wants to use his powers for good,
and he's trying to make movies,
him and Dede Gardner,
are trying to make movies
that perhaps otherwise wouldn't get made.
- [Brad] We follow filmmakers
that we really respect,
and for awhile, there was this period
where big budget tent pole films,
action films were getting
made, and then films
under 10 million if you
wanted to do something risky.
And there was this whole gap in between.
We first got in just trying to help some
of these people we
believed in get their film
to the finish line.
(pensive music)
- [Narrator] Once again
following the example
of his elder, Plan B is for Brad Pitt
what the Sundance Film Festival
was for Robert Redford.
A way for the two sexiest
actors of their generation
to refute the superficiality
of their image
by championing author
driven film projects.
(pensive music continues)
- And we try as best we can to come
behind it and push that back out
in the marketplace and
encourage the work to be seen.
(audience cheering)
- [Narrator] This behind the
scenes work soon pays off.
(audience cheering)
In less than 10 years,
several films produced
by Plan B have won awards
at the most prestigious film festivals.
- We want to thank Plan B Entertainment.
- "The Big Short" about
the subprime crisis.
- Amazing Brad Pitt.
(audience cheering)
- The "Moonlight."
(audience cheering)
- [Narrator] Or "Moonlight" about sexual
and racial discrimination.
- Thank you, Plan B.
(audience cheering)
And the Oscar goes to-
- [Narrator] Right up to
the most coveted of awards.
- "12 years A Slave" Brad Pitt.
(audience cheering)
- [Narrator] That night, the Oscar
for best picture is not only an honor
for its producer, it
reveals the invisible work
of a star no longer devoted entirely
to his own career, but
to the films of others.
- There's a lot of people I need to thank,
so I'll just push on.
To my wonderful cast and
crew, Plan B, Brad Pitt,
who without him this film
would just not have been made.
(audience cheering)
- And we're big fans of
Steve, and we started talking
with him and having discussions
about what he wanted to do next.
And it led to this.
And so first it starts as support
of the filmmakers we really believe in.
But two, this subject matter.
He asked the big question.
Why are there not more films
about American slavery?
Why hasn't it been in more American films?
And it was the right question.
(tense music)
(horse galloping)
(horse nickering)
- [Narrator] It's the
producer of "12 Years a Slave"
who asks this question.
A film that takes a frontal look
at the slave trade in America.
(Solomon choking)
But the question could also come
from the native of Springfield.
(bells pealing)
(pensive music)
In April, 1906, the city was the scene
of a highly publicized lynching.
Brad Pitt knows that the laws
of racial segregation reigned there
until 1966, three years after his birth.
(pensive music continues)
Plan B's film scraped beneath the surface
of this America where racism
and discrimination still reign.
(pensive music continues)
The kid from the Bible Belt is well placed
to know what conservative agenda
the tradition of religious worship serves.
During the 2012 campaign,
his mother went public
with her rejection of President Obama,
offended, she said, by his support
for same-sex marriage and abortion.
Her son, meanwhile, is
seen alongside Barack Obama
of whom he is one of the discreet donors.
- [Paparazzo] That's Brad Pitt there.
- [Narrator] Discreet because he wants
to keep this divergence
of opinion private.
His already distant relationship
with his family doesn't
need this publicity.
(paparazzi clamoring)
But with Brad Pitt,
nothing stays private for very long.
- [Paparazzo] You're the best, Brad.
(crowd cheering)
- [Crowd Member] Good
man. You're a good man!
- [Narrator] His
notoriety has never waned.
Even less so since he and Angelina Jolie,
one of the most famous actresses
in the world, became a couple.
(crowd cheering)
(somber music)
(somber music continues)
Since 1991, and his success
in "Thelma & Louise,"
at least three paparazzi
cars are parked day
and night in front of his house.
(cameras clicking)
- [Paparazzo] Brad,
please just one real quick
before you jump in.
- No, no, no, no.
- [Newscaster] Now, most movie stars have
their obsessed fans, but few
have devotees who also break
into their homes, sleep in their beds,
and try on their clothes,
while Brad was away
after buying the castle.
(crowd cheering)
- [Narrator] This type of
news item forces Brad Pitt
and his family to limit their
outings to the strict minimum.
- [Brad] Listen, it's a very strange thing
to be selling photos of
something that's very intimate
and personal, and those of
which you wanna protect.
We knew...
We have to plan an escape every
day to get outta the house.
Kind of a mission impossible with decoys,
and that's the life we live in.
(somber music continues)
- [David] And, action!
- [Narrator] The film
sets have become a refuge
for the actor, as shown in this shoot
alongside his friend, David Fincher,
a witness to the nightmare
that's become the actor's fame.
- I forget how just stupid the world is
around and about Brad.
I guess because I know how
uncomfortable it makes him.
I guess I just sort of
hope that it's receding
or in some way diminishing
because it certainly doesn't
make his life any easier
or any more enjoyable.
And then door opens, ba-boom.
We were shooting all in downtown LA,
and these two women who were walking
were intent in their conversations,
and they realized that they were about
to run into somebody and they both turned,
and they looked at him
and they both dropped
to their knees screaming.
And I... (chuckling)
It was horrible.
(clapperboard clapping)
- [Jonah] Now he's gonna
do what he's never done.
(Brad and Jonah laughing)
- [Narrator] Brad Pitt has learned
to control the smallest detail,
letting nothing of his
private life leak out,
which makes this captured, giggling fit
a rare and precious image,
a brief timeout from this photogenicity
that has become much more
than a mask, a fortress.
- [Jonah] Use it.
- Don't say he's now
gonna do what he's never done. (laughing)
- [Jonah] Just use it, Brad.
- Deadly Serious. (sniffing)
(pensive music)
- [Narrator] In the 2010s
Brad Pitt's roles move away
from comedy towards a
more serious register,
more conducive to reflection.
As if now in his 50s, the time had come
for this discreet man
to confess his burden.
(pensive music continues)
From film to film, it's
the same character,
the same solitude.
(pensive music continues)
- That's my bar. My bar is here.
- [Narrator] The solitude
of a workaholic devoted
to his art, like this baseball
manager in "Moneyball."
- Good to see you, man.
- If we win on our budget with this team,
(pensive music continues)
we'll change the game.
- [Narrator] A small stretch
of the imagination would suffice
to see this film as a hidden portrait
of the independent producer,
devoting himself entirely
to his passion, to the
detriment of his family life.
The solitude again of a man
in an unhappy marriage seeking
a semblance of comfort in alcohol.
The addiction of this
writer character directed
by Angelina Jolie echoes
a very real propensity.
(pensive music continues)
After his breakup with Angelina Jolie,
which this film seems to
announce, Brad Pitt will go public
with his rehab, confessing
to finally ending
a 30 year addiction to alcohol.
(glass clattering)
- Ah, shit.
- [Reporter 1] It's the
split heard round the world.
- [Reporter 2] Angelina
Jolie filed for divorce
from Brad Pitt.
- [Newscaster] Leaving
everyone totally stunned,
the Hollywood power couple
and the surprise split.
- [Broadcaster] Angelina has requested
full physical custody,
which means all six kids
would live with her.
(rocket fuel igniting)
(expressive music)
- [Narrator] "Ad Astra"
directed by James Gray,
will be the apotheosis of this decade.
With this astronaut
character sent out alone
into the farthest reaches,
the film is a new mirror
for Brad Pitt, a personal introspection.
- I don't know. So many times
in my life I've screwed up.
I've talked when I should have listened.
(expressive music continues)
- [James] Brad Pitt.
Well, he's an interesting figure
because he is a movie
star with movie star looks
and charisma, but he's not
entirely comfortable with it,
which is a great thing, and
you feel it in the work.
In other words, a movie
star that's confident
in being the center of all
attention and that becomes
almost like an invariably
conflict-free person
in your movie.
Brad doesn't have that.
Brad has a conflict inside of him,
and that was perfect for the part.
It's perfect for the character.
- [Crew Member] 24?
- One more 24.
- [Narrator] The inner conflict.
James Gray talks about
here is that of an actor
who has sacrificed
everything for the cinema
at the price of this sidereal solitude.
- [Brad] You know, it seems universal
that we all carry great
pains, great feelings
of loneliness, regrets.
A breakup of a family is
certainly an eye-opener
that I had to understand
my own culpability in that.
And what can I do better?
'Cause I don't want to go on like this.
(set creaking)
- [Crew Member] Can you move all that out?
- [Narrator] At the end of
this decade of fractures,
Brad Pitt is no longer the same man.
In this film, in the form
of a declaration of love
for the cinema, the actor
finally appears reconciled
with his image.
- I think the wind blew down
my TV antenna last night.
So, while I piss-fart
around with wardrobe,
you mind going home and fixin' it?
- I can.
- [Narrator] "Once Upon a Time
in Hollywood" is a rebirth,
that of a star who not only accepted,
but embraced the burden of his glamour.
(birds chirping)
As shown in this scene,
where his hunky physique is displayed
for the umpteenth time, Brad Pitt has come
to understand that nothing will
ever damage his sex appeal,
not even aging, which
at almost 60 years old,
doesn't prevent him from being the muse
of the greatest filmmakers.
Such a good thing, baby
And when your world
don't seem just right
- [Regina] And the Oscar goes to
(lighter igniting)
Brad Pitt,
(audience cheering)
"Once Upon a Time in Hollywood."
(lively music)
- [Announcer] His first for acting.
(audience cheering)
- Wow.
Thank you. This is
incredible, really incredible.
Thank you to the Academy
for this honor of honors.
(audience cheering)
I'm a bit gobsmacked.
I'm not one to look back,
but this has made me do so,
and I think of my folks
taking me to the drive-in
to see Butch and Sundance
and loading up my car
and moving out here and
Geena and Ridley giving me
my first shot to all the
wonderful people I've met
along the way to stand here now.
"Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,"
ain't that the truth.
(audience cheering)
Thank you!
- [Narrator] As his
retrospective speech suggests,
the Oscar doesn't only
reward a performance.
It implicitly crowns one
of the most honest careers
of his generation.
A life sacrificed to his art.
Like this character of a solitary stuntman
in whom he could easily imagine
an alternative version of himself.
A Brad Pitt who could also
have left his native Midwest,
but who could have ended up like thousands
of other disappointed hopefuls
behind the big screen,
never seeing himself on it.
- [Drive-in Announcer] You
mean our crunchy popcorn.
- Hey, Randy.
- (sighing) Okay, you fuckin'
horse's ass. (chuckling)
Let's get you over to wardrobe.
- [Narrator] The truth about Brad Pitt
may be hiding in this role.
If he hadn't signed his pact with success,
the actor would surely have remained
this simple man, doing various jobs
on the fringes of the industry.
- [Cliff] Yeah.
- [Narrator] A good guy
from the Ozarks displaying
his anonymous charisma
in a town he knows like
the back of his hand
without the recognition
being reciprocated.
(sorrowful music)
(sorrowful music continues)
- [Brad] We seem to be a culture
where we will impugn
someone for their missteps,
but we don't value what is the next move.
And the next move, to me,
really defines the
character of the individual.
(sorrowful music continues)
(sorrowful music continues)
- [Narrator] As for the
secret of his longevity,
this is revealed to us
through another pact.
Brad Pitt has never portrayed
the kid from Missouri
who fled the Bible Belt at the will
of his car, alone, without telling anyone,
to join the only religion
in which he has ever had any faith,
that of the cinema.
(sorrowful music continues)
(sorrowful music continues)
(sorrowful music continues)
(sorrowful music continues)
(sorrowful music continues)
(sorrowful music continues)
(sorrowful music continues)
(sorrowful music continues)
(sorrowful music continues)
(pensive music continues)
(audience cheering)
(Oprah screaming)
- [Narrator] The most
desirable man in the world is
about to appear on the most
watched TV show in America.
- Please welcome Brad Pitt!
(audience cheering)
- [Narrator] Brad Pitt's story
could begin here in 1998,
in the excitement of a glamorous decade
of which he was the then sex symbol.
The image is a precious one.
It enables us to see how far he has come
from this pretty boy object of desire
to the iconic actor snapped up
by Hollywood's greatest filmmakers.
- Welcome to Fight Club.
(bullet casing clattering)
- [Narrator] A world famous personality
whose star has never waned.
- I think this just
might be my masterpiece.
- [Narrator] An ideal trajectory
except for one detail,
this perfection that
weighs on him like a curse.
- Look at you. You're perfect.
(audience cheering)
- [Narrator] Since this show,
has Brad Pitt's story really evolved?
(paparazzi clamoring)
In the eyes of the public,
has he ever embodied anything other
than this male blonde beauty?
(paparazzi clatter)
(people cheering)
Have three decades of cinema been enough
to fracture this image,
which while being the key
to his phenomenal success,
has become a burden?
(pensive music continues)
(pensive music continues)
(car starting)
(wind rushing)
(wind whooshing)
Brad Pitt's birth in the cinema came
in 1991 in the role of a hitchhiker.
(Thelma whimpering)
- Alright, alright, Thelma. Alright.
- [Narrator] In "Thelma
& Louise," the story
of two women embarked on a road trip,
he embodies temptation, in the form
of this sexy, young drifter.
(twangy country music)
(vehicle accelerating)
- So, JD.
- Yeah.
- What are you studying in school?
- Uh, human nature. Oh, look.
Yeah. I'm a, I'm a...
Majoring in behavioral science.
You know? You're okay.
- [Narrator] With his
Stetson and Southern drawl,
the actor is disconcertingly natural,
as Ridley Scott recalls.
- [Brad] Hi. Excuse me, ma'am.
- Brad just came up in the casting session
and Lou DiGiaimo and I...
Lou was casting for me,
and he was it, really, instantly.
There was no second thoughts about that.
(tense country music)
- Well, it opened the doors for me,
and half this business is the lotto.
There's a lot of talented
people out there,
and because of that, I've
been given the opportunity
to grow and hone the craft, so to speak.
But Ridley Scott's giving
me that shot with Geena,
opened the door, let me in the game.
You're goin' my way, or
am I goin' your way...
- I think we're goin' to Oklahoma City...
- Seriously?
- But I'm not sure.
- [Narrator] Brad Pitt's natural ease
in portraying this character
could perhaps be due
to the fact that both men
hail from the same America.
Oklahoma City, where the
character in the film is headed,
is precisely the place where
the actor was born in 1963.
He'll spend his childhood
not far from there,
a little further up Route
66 in Springfield, Missouri,
a medium-sized town in
the American Midwest.
(birds tweeting)
(pensive music)
The eldest of three children,
Brad Pitt was raised
in a peaceful suburban
neighborhood, in an ideal family,
such as Springfield prides
itself on attracting.
(children chattering)
(vehicle accelerating)
Every weekend, the Pitts
would go to the Ozarks,
a particularly well-preserved
mid-mountain range.
- [Brad] I came out from the Ozarks.
It's Mark Twain country.
It's Jesse James country, a
lot of hills, a lot of lakes.
I got my first BB gun preschool.
(cows lowing)
- [Narrator] Here, the
young boy is immersed
in an America untouched by modernity,
unchanged since the days of
Jesse James, a local legend
whose stories lulled
young Americans to sleep.
(horse gallops and whinnies)
(gunshots ringing out)
A Midwest frozen in time, very attracted
to its folklore and to its image
of the American Garden of Eden.
(explosion clamoring)
(horse whinnying)
(projector whirring)
Around the age of 10,
he discovers the cinema.
(20th Century Fox fanfare)
Every Saturday, he devours
the movies shown there,
particularly Westerns, such as
"Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,"
in which a certain Robert
Redford fascinates him.
- Think you used enough
dynamite there, Butch?
(gunshots ringing out)
(gunshots ringing out)
(20th Century Fox fanfare)
(gunshots ringing out)
- [Narrator] It's from
this film loving youth
that his desire to
become an actor is born.
And just before graduating
from college, he'll draw up the courage
to leave Missouri without
even telling his parents.
(school bell ringing)
(impactful music)
- [Brad] I packed up my
car. I didn't graduate.
I had two weeks left,
and I moved out to LA.
I get there with, like the cliche goes,
with my beat up Datsun,
and I had $275 to my savings.
(impactful music continues)
Well, I knew where I wanted
to go. I had a direction.
I always liked those moments of epiphany
when you have the next destination.
- [Narrator] Direction, Hollywood to meet
the outside world and
his destiny as an actor.
- [Brad] I landed in Burbank,
and I got the paper
and I found some extra agencies.
And by the end of that week, I was...
I paid my 25 bucks to join up,
and I was an extra.
- [Narrator] Brad Pitt
then experiences the life
of thousands of other aspiring
actors, sharing lodgings
and starting at the bottom...
(upbeat music)
Commercials, soap operas,
TV movies, sitcoms.
Having never taken any
acting classes, he finds work
in television, where
demand was at its highest.
I said yeah
Yeah
- [Narrator] Brad Pitt lands a small role
in the TV series "Dallas,"
which gets him noticed.
Yeah, yeah
- I'm Randy.
Nice to meet you, sir.
(static crackling)
(funky music)
- [Newscaster] Well,
it's no secret anymore.
Brad Pitt's made two
of the last five issues
of "People Magazine."
He is what "Star Magazine" calls
the "hunky new 'Dallas' star."
- It's just been snowballing like this,
and that's what I'm talking about,
about being taken care
of because there's no way
that someone in my position,
a dork from Missouri,
who had no training should be...
I don't know. I just feel really thankful.
- [Newscaster] It happens, though.
- Thanks!
She's so nice.
- [Narrator] But the
euphoria will be short-lived.
The snowball effect that he talks
about here remains limited
to the small screen.
After five years of minor
roles, there are no signs
that his fate will be
any different to that
of his former roommate, Jason Priestley,
a Beverly Hills star
who would never make it
to the silver screen.
("Beverly Hills 90210" theme song)
(static crackling)
Television, which was
supposed to bring him closer
to his dream, takes him
farther away from it.
Brad Pitt begins to resign himself.
- [Interviewer] Go ahead.
- Well, unfortunately a lot of television
for me is a fast food fashion show.
A lot of it.
And it's because of money and time
and I understand it has to be that way,
but it gets kind of frustrating.
That's me though. I'm
not paying the bills.
(energetic rock music)
- [Narrator] Out of necessity, he lends
his male model physique
to a banal commercial,
little suspecting that it would change
the course of his career.
It's in this non-speaking
role, requiring minimum effort
that he'll be spotted
for "Thelma & Louise."
Everything's fine
In fact, the young
actor's physical presence
alone was enough to get him noticed.
Nothing's more eloquent than a body
naturally made for the movies.
Ah
- Then I just kind of
waltz on in and I say-
- [Narrator] His big screen
debut is thus due entirely
and solely to his physique.
This is evidenced by the
care taken by Ridley Scott
for this memorable love scene,
which required three days of shooting.
- Oh.
- Ooh.
- [Geena] Ridley personally
applied the Evian spray
to Brad's stomach,
which was about the moment
that I started thinking,
"Hi. I'm in the scene and I'm the girl."
(tense rock music)
- [Narrator] As Geena Davis recounts,
the director pays so much attention to him
that the actor becomes
the center of the scene,
disputing the place of object of desire,
traditionally assigned
to the female character.
Entering the film as an unknown,
he'll come out of it a sex symbol.
(sweeping music)
A year later, Brad Pitt
appears in the cast
of "A River Runs Through It."
(idyllic music)
(water rippling)
- [Norman] My brother Paul
and I grew up in a time
when the land was still untouched.
- [Narrator] A story of
brothers in the bucolic setting
of an America of yesteryear
that echoes his own youth.
(idyllic music swells)
- [Announcer] It's the classic
story of an American family
from Academy Award-winning
director Robert Redford.
(Robert directing indistinctly)
- [Narrator] The film is
directed by his childhood idol,
quite a symbol for the young actor.
Hollywood, in person, has
opened its doors to him.
- [Brad] Well, I actually
heard about it about a year
before, and I heard Robert
Redford was doing a film
about two brothers in Montana,
and it was those three
elements right there.
- [Narrator] This is the first
episode in a relationship
that's destined to continue.
(dramatic music)
10 years later, the two men will co-star
in the spy film, "Spy Game,"
which sees Redford's character passing
the torch to Pitt, his heir.
(energetic electronic music)
- So when do I get my first assignment?
- When I decide you're ready.
(film spinning and clicking)
- [Narrator] But in the early 90s,
Brad isn't quite there yet.
- You have a lot of scenes
on the river, in the river.
- [Brad] Yeah, thank God. That's alright.
- You like that?
- Look, I grew up in the Ozarks,
so, I'm gonna do alright.
Better than a sound stage. Sure do.
- [Narrator] Brad Pitt Pitt
has understood the lesson.
The less he talks, the
more convincing he is.
But there's another law.
The industry is quick to label you.
(wood cracking)
(wood cracking)
(Tristan grunting)
"Legends of the Fall" enlists him again
as the face of an idealized America
and of the folklore of his childhood.
(tranquil orchestral music)
Already the actor is
trapped in a stereotype,
that of the country boy, eyed
greedily, like a delicacy.
(horse whinnying)
- And does he speak English? (chuckling)
- [Narrator] Just a few films suffice
to make him the embodiment
of virginal beauty.
And of a Hollywoodian glamour returned
to its state of grace.
In 1994, for its promotion,
"Interview with the Vampire"
counts on the teaming up
of the two sexiest male
stars of their generation.
- [Movie Announcer] Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt.
"Interview with the Vampire."
(unsettling music)
- [Narrator] But the two headliners aren't
at the same stage.
Tom Cruise, then in search
of complex roles, is seeking
to shed his playboy image.
(unsettling music continues)
His bite here is that of
an actor freeing himself
from his burden by
inflicting it on another.
(unsettling music continues)
(keyboard keys clacking)
Brad Pitt inherits from his screen partner
a title he could well have done without.
(tense music)
The Faustian pact suddenly reveals
the other side of the coin.
His status as a sex symbol is a dead end.
- God.
- What is that?
(fan chuckling)
(fans chuckling)
Who is that?
- [Narrator] It's up
to him to find the film
that will free him from this glossy image.
- [Paparazzo] Paparazzi TV.
(tense music continues)
(thunder rolling)
(ominous music)
(siren blaring)
- Just like the film's
groundbreaking opening credits,
"Seven" is his act of rebellion.
(ominous music continues)
That of a stereotyped actor eager
to dirty his pretty face in the blackness
of a neo noir thriller.
(rain pattering)
(ominous music continues)
The film follows the investigation
of two detectives on the trail
of a serial killer whose
murders are inspired
by the seven deadly sins.
- You were right.
- [Sommerset] Mm?
- (grunting) He's preaching.
- Yeah. His murders are his sermons to us.
(ominous music continues)
- [Narrator] The opportunity for Brad Pitt
to rub shoulders with an
unwholesome universe imbued
with religious fanaticism, which
interests him particularly.
For the kid from Missouri, this
element has its importance.
(bells pealing)
(cars accelerating)
(somber evangelical music)
Springfield, his childhood town,
is located in the Bible Belt,
a vast area in the southern United States
where Protestant
fundamentalism is practiced.
The Pitt siblings were
raised in the Baptist faith,
the strictest branch of Protestantism.
(bells pealing)
- [Brad] We grew up Southern Baptist.
It was Sunday school and do good
and Bible study and daily prayer.
(somber evangelical music continues)
- [Narrator] A docile
and churchgoing childhood
where religion is law.
Brad Pitt will be the
only one in his family
to turn his back on this world.
- [Brad] I was very
curious about the world,
even at a young age, and I became aware
that other nations and other
cultures didn't believe
the same, and they believed
in different religions.
And my question is,
"Well, why don't they get
to go to heaven then?"
And the answer was always,
"Well, everyone gets a chance."
(bells pealing)
- [Narrator] "Seven" represents
what Brad Pitt dreamed
of doing by fleeing the Bible Belt.
Films that expose the violence of America
and the puritanism that he knows so well.
The moral values of which sometimes serve
as an excuse for the worst acts.
(haunting music)
- I won't deny my own personal desire
to turn each sin against the sinner.
- Wait a minute.
I thought all you did
was kill innocent people.
- Innocent? Is that supposed to be funny?
An obese man? A disgusting
man who could barely stand up?
- Yeah.
(clapperboard clapping)
- [Narrator] The same year as "Seven,"
the actor seizes the
opportunity to collaborate
with former Monty Python
member Terry Gilliam.
- [Terry] We decided he really
had to train for this role
because his voice didn't have
the qualities needed to do it.
And Brad worked really hard at this.
- Walking around like
this, like this, like this.
And they need to know, and
they need to know something.
You gotta tell 'em. You gotta wake 'em up.
You gotta go one, two, three, four,
one, two, three, four.
- [Narrator] He learns to use
his physique not only
for its photogenicity,
but as an instrument in its own right.
- Suddenly I felt like
bending the fucking bars back!
And ripping out the goddamn
window frames and eating them!
Yes, eating them! And
leaping, leaping, leaping!
Colonics for everyone!
(audience cheering)
(celebratory music)
- [Narrator] Winning a Golden Globe award
for Best Supporting Actor,
his performance affirms
his ambitions as an actor.
- Thank you "Hollywood Foreign Press"
for this moment of absolute terror.
(audience laughing)
Thank you to Terry Gilliam
for the Terry Gilliam experience.
Yeah.
(audience cheering)
One that won't be forgotten.
(static crackling)
(pensive music)
- [Narrator] But the new
direction taken in "Seven" isn't
enough to erase the primary
reasons for his success.
- [Interviewer] What's the secret
to being the sexiest man alive?
- Man, if I knew, listen...
(interviewer laughing)
I don't know how
that happened, that debacle,
(interviewer laughing)
but I'm sure it's all evil,
(interviewer chuckling)
and I try to stay away from it.
(foreshadowing music)
- [Narrator] An evil curse.
The actor couldn't have put it better.
In the year 2000, five years
after winning the title,
Brad Pitt will be the first personality
to be elected sexiest man
alive for the second time.
- [Announcer] It's the one you've
all been asking for.
(crowd cheering)
(Oprah screaming)
Brad Pitt.
(crowd chattering)
- [Narrator] Since "Thelma & Louise,"
Brad-mania has reached
uncontrollable proportions.
(paparazzi chattering)
The darkness of his last roles wasn't
enough to break the spell.
The actor remains, first and
foremost, an object of desire.
- I love Brad Pitt.
I've loved you since my freshman year
of high school, and I
wanna meet you so bad.
- I think he's got a really cute nose.
(teen laughing)
It's so cute!
- [Narrator] On the screen,
a scene is always used
as a pretext to undress
him, to inspect him
from every angle, as if
the industry was eager
to show off its most beautiful product.
(funky music)
(static crackling)
At the end of the 1990s, Brad Pitt is more
than ever the face of
this marketing of glamour.
(funky music continues)
Sitcoms, commercials, boy
bands, porn, soap operas,
platinum locks at all hours.
Barbie dolls on every channel.
The sex symbol of "Thelma
& Louise" has become
the flagship product of this decade
of excessive desirability.
Sexy overdone to a ridiculous extreme
as this love scene
wonderfully illustrates,
where he finds himself stripped
for the umpteenth time,
like the unpacking of a figurine.
(audience cheering)
- Yes.
- That movie's two hours and 45 minutes,
and they had to take that clip.
- [Oprah] Yeah.
(audience laughing)
(discordant music)
- [Brad] The strangest thing
is suddenly being looked
at and watched and judged in a way.
I mean, I don't know what I was expecting.
You're putting yourself in that ring.
I just didn't think that far ahead.
And I found it very discombobulating.
I was very, very uncomfortable
with the focus.
(audience cheering)
I think one of the lovely things
about where I grew up is
it's considered great hubris
to talk about yourself.
- 'Cause there are scenes
in "Meet Joe Black,"
for example, when you guys
are saying absolutely nothing.
I don't know where they have that camera.
Is it like on your forehead
(Brad laughing)
or on her forehead?
'Cause this is some of the
closest closeups I've ever seen,
where you're just really nice to look
at and to look into your eyes.
(discordant music)
- [Narrator] Just shut up
and look pretty is the price
to pay for his pact with success.
- You look too skinny, though.
- Thanks, Katie.
- You're always looking too skinny.
Are you not eating?
- You say that every time.
- I know. But you are.
I realize-
- [Narrator] Show business
doesn't care how good
an actor he is, so long
as he remains this poster boy
available to his audience.
- You should do a
romantic comedy sometime.
Something sort of light and airy and-
- I've thought about it. I don't know.
I'll feel it out.
- Yeah. You sort of just
see what comes your way.
- [Brad] Yeah.
- What are you working on now?
- I'm working on a thing
called "The Fight Club."
- [Katie] And tell me about that.
- I want you to hit me as hard as you can.
- [Katie] What's it about?
- What?
- I want you to hit me as hard as you can.
That's David Fincher
directing. He directed "Seven."
It's about two guys who start
this amateur boxing league
for underprivileged youth and the woman
who comes between 'em.
- [Katie] Ah.
- But we twist it a bit.
(Tyler grunting)
(blow landing)
(Tyler sputtering)
(blow landing)
- Ah, okay, okay, okay. I got it.
I got it. I got it.
Shit. I lost it.
(Tyler grunting)
(Tyler laughing)
- [Narrator] Violent, insolent, vulgar,
"Fight Club" deceives all expectations.
The film is a masochistic comedy
with, as a kind of running gag,
the presence of the sexiest man alive
here to get beaten to a pulp.
Here, above all, to have
this perfect body explore
all its possible states.
Pummeled in a car wreck,
burnt with acid,
emptied of its fluids,
doused with fat,
pierced with a bullet.
"Seven" was an attempt to damage him.
"Fight Club" is successful.
The film exhibits Brad Pitt not as a star,
but as a body, filled
with blood, organs, sweat,
and sexual savagery on a scale never
before tolerated in Hollywood.
- What are you doing?
- Just going to bed.
(Marla moaning)
You wanna finish her off?
(Marla clattering)
- [Narrator] The actor
enjoys himself like rarely
before, pushing the
limits of offensiveness
and blocking the studio censorship,
as David Fincher reveals.
(bell dinging)
- [David] This is Brad's
idea, the rubber glove,
where he kind of points in the background
and says, "You wanna finish her off?"
And I remember the
studio came back saying,
"You have to get rid of that.
There's no way. That is not funny.
It is too awful. You had to
put a rubber glove on him."
I said, "That was Brad's idea. Tell him.
If you got a problem with
it, you should call him."
- [Narrator] The film
pokes funded everything,
starting with Brad Pitt.
(door slamming)
He, the blonde boy
from "Seven Years in Tibet,"
(bell dinging)
the marquee of which appears
mockingly in the background.
He, whose male model body
(bell dinging)
is reflected ironically
in the commercial posters.
(passengers coughing)
- I felt sorry for guys packed into gyms,
trying to look like how Calvin Klein
or Tommy Hilfiger said they should.
Is that what a man looks like.
- (chuckling) Self-improvement
is masturbation.
(bell dinging)
- [Narrator] He, the consumer product
who would have us believe in
his anti-consumerist revolt.
- We've all been raised
on television to believe
that one day we'd all be
millionaires and movie gods
and rock stars, but we won't.
(projector whirring)
- [Narrator] With Brad Pitt
at the helm, the film is a vast deception,
tending more towards a
display of self assassination
and mockery, than the scathing attack
on society it's claimed to be.
- Splicing single frames of pornography
into family films.
(indistinct movie music)
(actress moaning)
(projector whirring)
A nice, big cock.
- [Narrator] After "Fight Club,"
nothing would ever be the same again.
(upbeat music)
(paparazzi clamoring)
Considered too violent on its release,
the film is shunned by the public,
especially women to whom
Brad Pitt owes his success.
This is precisely what the
sex symbol was looking for.
To chip his glamour boy
image, to break the spell.
(crowd cheering)
"Fight Club" sharpens his
sense of self mockery.
In the 2000s, he continues
in this direction
choosing other black comedy films,
directed by filmmakers
whose work he admires,
like Quentin Tarantino
(gunshot ringing out)
or Guy Ritchie.
- The thing is about Brad
Pit is he's very funny,
and I don't think anyone's really
ever capitalized on that before,
but he is a funny bastard,
and it is nice to do something
where he's not taking himself seriously,
and he doesn't take
himself seriously in this.
And it's a bit of a piss-take part.
(crowd cheering)
- In the red corner, we have
the young and unchallenged...
- So, Mick, you're going
down in the fourth.
Is that clear?
- Just make sure he doesn't kill me
before the fuckin' fourth.
- [Narrator] In "Snatch,"
he plays a gypsy boxer
who's impossible to take seriously.
- [Guy] Action!
Cut!
- [Narrator] As shown in
this acrobatic making of,
the actor takes a new step forward
in the physical expression of his art,
having fun with his body to
give a burlesque inflection
to his manly performances,
(snappy jazz music)
somewhere between Rocky
Balboa and Buster Keaton.
(snappy jazz music continues)
(Ethan and Joel laughing)
- That's good.
- The Cohen Brothers then
think of Brad Pitt for the role
of a fitness coach in
"Burn After Reading,"
offering him the opportunity
to push the male dumb blonde stereotype
to its absurd extreme.
(gym member groaning)
- Too much?
- I just felt a straining,
a tightness in the front of my ass.
- I'm gonna check in with my office.
I'll be right back.
When we do, we're gonna
work on opening those hips.
- [Narrator] Delighted by this
infidelity to his own image,
the actor isn't remotely put off
by the extreme idiocy of his character.
Throwing himself into
the role as few stars
of his stature would dare to do.
- Every time I'm afraid that
I'm the biggest knucklehead,
then I see Brad in a
pair of spandex shorts,
and I think, "Well, I'll be okay."
- [Narrator] Blood thirsty,
over the top American.
His character as a Nazi killer
in "Inglourious Basterds"
once again beats records
in outrageousness.
- Each and every man
under my command owes me
100 Nazi scalps, and I want my scalps.
- [Narrator] It's because of this taste
for caricature that Quentin
Tarantino had thought
of him when writing the role.
- One of the biggest reactions
in the movie he did was
completely different
from how I thought it would be,
was his "bonjourno."
In my mind, he pulled it
off a little bit more.
(Brad and Quentin laughing)
And then when he said it that way,
it was at the script reading,
- Yeah, yeah.
- And it just, it killed.
And then after he said it, I was like,
"Well, God, now I can't...
Now you've ruined it for me.
I can't hear it any other way.
I don't have a choice. I
have to do it that way."
(Bridget speaking German)
- Bonjourno.
(Hans speaking Italian)
- [Narrator] Exaggerating
his native accent,
Brad Pitt plays on this
crude American presence
to pull the film towards comedy,
now become his preferred genre.
- Hm.
- Grazie.
- There's just this character and behavior
that comes out, and that can't be written.
The physiology to actually
make the character come alive.
And he's kind of a genius about that.
(melancholy music)
- [Narrator] By poking
fun at his own stereotype
since "Fight Club," Brad Pitt
has fought fire with fire.
At least, that's what he thinks.
Because everything he attempts
to chip his image is invariably turned
around to the benefit of his glamour.
- [Monica] Hey!
- Hey!
(audience cheering)
- [Narrator] His appearance in "Friends,"
alongside Jennifer Aniston, his then wife,
is that of an actor at ease
in the tongue in cheek,
aware of being condemned
to sexy whatever he does.
- God, I hate her Ross.
I hate her!
(audience laughing)
- Wow! Really got that sexy,
smoldering thing going on.
(audience laughing)
God!
- Told you to do that.
- [Narrator] Irony and
coolness are now added
to his physical beauty,
but this insouciance has a price.
(dramatic music)
(paparazzi clamoring)
Promoted by the 90s generation,
the star system was then thriving.
It was a time when certain actors signed
up for 15 years of franchises,
such as Tom Cruise or Johnny Depp.
(crowd cheering)
At the risk, confirmed since then,
of making nothing else but blockbusters.
(dramatic music continues)
- [Nestor] This will be the greatest war
the world has ever seen.
We need the greatest warrior.
(dramatic music continues)
- [Narrator] In the mid 2000s,
Brad Pitt also appears in blockbusters,
(Achilles grunting)
(blade twanging)
but the actor feels limited.
(soldiers cheering)
At 40 years old, this
blondness, this heroism,
this virile manliness takes him back
to the Greek God image he
thought he'd left behind.
Accepted reluctantly due
to a contract binding him
to Warner, "Troy" represents
a turning point for the actor,
but his destiny is written elsewhere,
far from these monumental film shoots.
(dreamy music)
- He was growing into middle age.
- [Film Narrator] He considered
himself a Southern loyalist
and guerilla in a Civil
War that never ended.
He regretted neither his robberies
nor the 17 murders that he laid claim to.
He had seen another summer
under in Kansas City, Missouri.
(dreamy music continues)
- [Narrator] The actor prefers
a personal film project
to an extravagant production.
In the role of Jesse James
in his declining years,
Brad Pitt returns to his native region.
Far from the folklore of his childhood,
the film will portrays the famous outlaw
as a dark and paranoid character,
stripped of the glamour of the myth.
(dreamy music continues)
- And I'll creep up behind that cashier,
and I'll his head back like so,
and I'll say, I'll say,
"How did you get to
reach your 20th birthday
without leaking out all of your clothes?"
And if I don't like his
attitude, I will slit
that field doodle so deep,
he will flop on the floor like fish.
(Robert gasping)
(Jesse laughing)
- So, in the career standpoint-
- Yeah.
- You're gonna make
these movies that you wanna make?
- Yes. Mm hm.
My only barometer at this
point is if I'm proud
of the film, and I think
this is a really good film.
And it's not for everyone, it's for,
what I would call, a connoisseur of film.
But I think of all my favorite films
or most of my favorite films,
the majority of 'em I found
well after their release.
It's a film lovers film.
- [Charlie] Yeah.
- Yeah.
- [Narrator] In addition to an
out of character performance,
the film offers the actor a mirror
in which he sees a reflection of himself.
(wood creaking)
Murdered by an admirer, Jesse James is
here the inverted reflection
of the cowboy drifter
of "Thelma & Louise."
The metaphor of a fame
that has consumed him
since this first success made
him the prey of paparazzi.
(camera snapping)
- [Photographer] Thank
you though very much.
- [Narrator] "The Assassination
of Jesse James" is
a profession of faith, that of an actor,
a film lover, who has also
become the producer of his films.
His personal involvement will be the key
to the success of Plan B,
his production company.
(melancholy piano music)
- I think the original
intention, which I attribute
to Brad really, was to create a harbor,
if you will, a safe
place for original story.
Narrative that hasn't been told before.
Stories that might require
sort of extra safekeeping,
as you keep their original intention pure,
all the way to the screen.
(Andrew talking indistinctly)
- [Narrator] Brad Pitt
is an unfailing support
for filmmakers, such as Andrew Dominik,
all of whose films he'll produce.
(Brad and Andrew chatting indistinctly)
- Well, our relationship
has always been...
He's always performed
the producerial function.
Brad, I think at this stage in his career,
is concerned about his legacy,
and he wants to make...
Wants to use his powers for good,
and he's trying to make movies,
him and Dede Gardner,
are trying to make movies
that perhaps otherwise wouldn't get made.
- [Brad] We follow filmmakers
that we really respect,
and for awhile, there was this period
where big budget tent pole films,
action films were getting
made, and then films
under 10 million if you
wanted to do something risky.
And there was this whole gap in between.
We first got in just trying to help some
of these people we
believed in get their film
to the finish line.
(pensive music)
- [Narrator] Once again
following the example
of his elder, Plan B is for Brad Pitt
what the Sundance Film Festival
was for Robert Redford.
A way for the two sexiest
actors of their generation
to refute the superficiality
of their image
by championing author
driven film projects.
(pensive music continues)
- And we try as best we can to come
behind it and push that back out
in the marketplace and
encourage the work to be seen.
(audience cheering)
- [Narrator] This behind the
scenes work soon pays off.
(audience cheering)
In less than 10 years,
several films produced
by Plan B have won awards
at the most prestigious film festivals.
- We want to thank Plan B Entertainment.
- "The Big Short" about
the subprime crisis.
- Amazing Brad Pitt.
(audience cheering)
- The "Moonlight."
(audience cheering)
- [Narrator] Or "Moonlight" about sexual
and racial discrimination.
- Thank you, Plan B.
(audience cheering)
And the Oscar goes to-
- [Narrator] Right up to
the most coveted of awards.
- "12 years A Slave" Brad Pitt.
(audience cheering)
- [Narrator] That night, the Oscar
for best picture is not only an honor
for its producer, it
reveals the invisible work
of a star no longer devoted entirely
to his own career, but
to the films of others.
- There's a lot of people I need to thank,
so I'll just push on.
To my wonderful cast and
crew, Plan B, Brad Pitt,
who without him this film
would just not have been made.
(audience cheering)
- And we're big fans of
Steve, and we started talking
with him and having discussions
about what he wanted to do next.
And it led to this.
And so first it starts as support
of the filmmakers we really believe in.
But two, this subject matter.
He asked the big question.
Why are there not more films
about American slavery?
Why hasn't it been in more American films?
And it was the right question.
(tense music)
(horse galloping)
(horse nickering)
- [Narrator] It's the
producer of "12 Years a Slave"
who asks this question.
A film that takes a frontal look
at the slave trade in America.
(Solomon choking)
But the question could also come
from the native of Springfield.
(bells pealing)
(pensive music)
In April, 1906, the city was the scene
of a highly publicized lynching.
Brad Pitt knows that the laws
of racial segregation reigned there
until 1966, three years after his birth.
(pensive music continues)
Plan B's film scraped beneath the surface
of this America where racism
and discrimination still reign.
(pensive music continues)
The kid from the Bible Belt is well placed
to know what conservative agenda
the tradition of religious worship serves.
During the 2012 campaign,
his mother went public
with her rejection of President Obama,
offended, she said, by his support
for same-sex marriage and abortion.
Her son, meanwhile, is
seen alongside Barack Obama
of whom he is one of the discreet donors.
- [Paparazzo] That's Brad Pitt there.
- [Narrator] Discreet because he wants
to keep this divergence
of opinion private.
His already distant relationship
with his family doesn't
need this publicity.
(paparazzi clamoring)
But with Brad Pitt,
nothing stays private for very long.
- [Paparazzo] You're the best, Brad.
(crowd cheering)
- [Crowd Member] Good
man. You're a good man!
- [Narrator] His
notoriety has never waned.
Even less so since he and Angelina Jolie,
one of the most famous actresses
in the world, became a couple.
(crowd cheering)
(somber music)
(somber music continues)
Since 1991, and his success
in "Thelma & Louise,"
at least three paparazzi
cars are parked day
and night in front of his house.
(cameras clicking)
- [Paparazzo] Brad,
please just one real quick
before you jump in.
- No, no, no, no.
- [Newscaster] Now, most movie stars have
their obsessed fans, but few
have devotees who also break
into their homes, sleep in their beds,
and try on their clothes,
while Brad was away
after buying the castle.
(crowd cheering)
- [Narrator] This type of
news item forces Brad Pitt
and his family to limit their
outings to the strict minimum.
- [Brad] Listen, it's a very strange thing
to be selling photos of
something that's very intimate
and personal, and those of
which you wanna protect.
We knew...
We have to plan an escape every
day to get outta the house.
Kind of a mission impossible with decoys,
and that's the life we live in.
(somber music continues)
- [David] And, action!
- [Narrator] The film
sets have become a refuge
for the actor, as shown in this shoot
alongside his friend, David Fincher,
a witness to the nightmare
that's become the actor's fame.
- I forget how just stupid the world is
around and about Brad.
I guess because I know how
uncomfortable it makes him.
I guess I just sort of
hope that it's receding
or in some way diminishing
because it certainly doesn't
make his life any easier
or any more enjoyable.
And then door opens, ba-boom.
We were shooting all in downtown LA,
and these two women who were walking
were intent in their conversations,
and they realized that they were about
to run into somebody and they both turned,
and they looked at him
and they both dropped
to their knees screaming.
And I... (chuckling)
It was horrible.
(clapperboard clapping)
- [Jonah] Now he's gonna
do what he's never done.
(Brad and Jonah laughing)
- [Narrator] Brad Pitt has learned
to control the smallest detail,
letting nothing of his
private life leak out,
which makes this captured, giggling fit
a rare and precious image,
a brief timeout from this photogenicity
that has become much more
than a mask, a fortress.
- [Jonah] Use it.
- Don't say he's now
gonna do what he's never done. (laughing)
- [Jonah] Just use it, Brad.
- Deadly Serious. (sniffing)
(pensive music)
- [Narrator] In the 2010s
Brad Pitt's roles move away
from comedy towards a
more serious register,
more conducive to reflection.
As if now in his 50s, the time had come
for this discreet man
to confess his burden.
(pensive music continues)
From film to film, it's
the same character,
the same solitude.
(pensive music continues)
- That's my bar. My bar is here.
- [Narrator] The solitude
of a workaholic devoted
to his art, like this baseball
manager in "Moneyball."
- Good to see you, man.
- If we win on our budget with this team,
(pensive music continues)
we'll change the game.
- [Narrator] A small stretch
of the imagination would suffice
to see this film as a hidden portrait
of the independent producer,
devoting himself entirely
to his passion, to the
detriment of his family life.
The solitude again of a man
in an unhappy marriage seeking
a semblance of comfort in alcohol.
The addiction of this
writer character directed
by Angelina Jolie echoes
a very real propensity.
(pensive music continues)
After his breakup with Angelina Jolie,
which this film seems to
announce, Brad Pitt will go public
with his rehab, confessing
to finally ending
a 30 year addiction to alcohol.
(glass clattering)
- Ah, shit.
- [Reporter 1] It's the
split heard round the world.
- [Reporter 2] Angelina
Jolie filed for divorce
from Brad Pitt.
- [Newscaster] Leaving
everyone totally stunned,
the Hollywood power couple
and the surprise split.
- [Broadcaster] Angelina has requested
full physical custody,
which means all six kids
would live with her.
(rocket fuel igniting)
(expressive music)
- [Narrator] "Ad Astra"
directed by James Gray,
will be the apotheosis of this decade.
With this astronaut
character sent out alone
into the farthest reaches,
the film is a new mirror
for Brad Pitt, a personal introspection.
- I don't know. So many times
in my life I've screwed up.
I've talked when I should have listened.
(expressive music continues)
- [James] Brad Pitt.
Well, he's an interesting figure
because he is a movie
star with movie star looks
and charisma, but he's not
entirely comfortable with it,
which is a great thing, and
you feel it in the work.
In other words, a movie
star that's confident
in being the center of all
attention and that becomes
almost like an invariably
conflict-free person
in your movie.
Brad doesn't have that.
Brad has a conflict inside of him,
and that was perfect for the part.
It's perfect for the character.
- [Crew Member] 24?
- One more 24.
- [Narrator] The inner conflict.
James Gray talks about
here is that of an actor
who has sacrificed
everything for the cinema
at the price of this sidereal solitude.
- [Brad] You know, it seems universal
that we all carry great
pains, great feelings
of loneliness, regrets.
A breakup of a family is
certainly an eye-opener
that I had to understand
my own culpability in that.
And what can I do better?
'Cause I don't want to go on like this.
(set creaking)
- [Crew Member] Can you move all that out?
- [Narrator] At the end of
this decade of fractures,
Brad Pitt is no longer the same man.
In this film, in the form
of a declaration of love
for the cinema, the actor
finally appears reconciled
with his image.
- I think the wind blew down
my TV antenna last night.
So, while I piss-fart
around with wardrobe,
you mind going home and fixin' it?
- I can.
- [Narrator] "Once Upon a Time
in Hollywood" is a rebirth,
that of a star who not only accepted,
but embraced the burden of his glamour.
(birds chirping)
As shown in this scene,
where his hunky physique is displayed
for the umpteenth time, Brad Pitt has come
to understand that nothing will
ever damage his sex appeal,
not even aging, which
at almost 60 years old,
doesn't prevent him from being the muse
of the greatest filmmakers.
Such a good thing, baby
And when your world
don't seem just right
- [Regina] And the Oscar goes to
(lighter igniting)
Brad Pitt,
(audience cheering)
"Once Upon a Time in Hollywood."
(lively music)
- [Announcer] His first for acting.
(audience cheering)
- Wow.
Thank you. This is
incredible, really incredible.
Thank you to the Academy
for this honor of honors.
(audience cheering)
I'm a bit gobsmacked.
I'm not one to look back,
but this has made me do so,
and I think of my folks
taking me to the drive-in
to see Butch and Sundance
and loading up my car
and moving out here and
Geena and Ridley giving me
my first shot to all the
wonderful people I've met
along the way to stand here now.
"Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,"
ain't that the truth.
(audience cheering)
Thank you!
- [Narrator] As his
retrospective speech suggests,
the Oscar doesn't only
reward a performance.
It implicitly crowns one
of the most honest careers
of his generation.
A life sacrificed to his art.
Like this character of a solitary stuntman
in whom he could easily imagine
an alternative version of himself.
A Brad Pitt who could also
have left his native Midwest,
but who could have ended up like thousands
of other disappointed hopefuls
behind the big screen,
never seeing himself on it.
- [Drive-in Announcer] You
mean our crunchy popcorn.
- Hey, Randy.
- (sighing) Okay, you fuckin'
horse's ass. (chuckling)
Let's get you over to wardrobe.
- [Narrator] The truth about Brad Pitt
may be hiding in this role.
If he hadn't signed his pact with success,
the actor would surely have remained
this simple man, doing various jobs
on the fringes of the industry.
- [Cliff] Yeah.
- [Narrator] A good guy
from the Ozarks displaying
his anonymous charisma
in a town he knows like
the back of his hand
without the recognition
being reciprocated.
(sorrowful music)
(sorrowful music continues)
- [Brad] We seem to be a culture
where we will impugn
someone for their missteps,
but we don't value what is the next move.
And the next move, to me,
really defines the
character of the individual.
(sorrowful music continues)
(sorrowful music continues)
- [Narrator] As for the
secret of his longevity,
this is revealed to us
through another pact.
Brad Pitt has never portrayed
the kid from Missouri
who fled the Bible Belt at the will
of his car, alone, without telling anyone,
to join the only religion
in which he has ever had any faith,
that of the cinema.
(sorrowful music continues)
(sorrowful music continues)
(sorrowful music continues)
(sorrowful music continues)
(sorrowful music continues)
(sorrowful music continues)
(sorrowful music continues)
(sorrowful music continues)
(sorrowful music continues)