Brad Pitt Can Relate to ‘Babylon’ Character: ‘Melancholy May Be My Natural Way of Being’

Samantha Bergeson
·2 min read
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Brad Pitt is voicing his weariness of Hollywood while promoting the epic period piece “Babylon.”

The sweeping 1920s-set drama stars Pitt as an aging silent film star in Damien Chazelle’s latest star-studded Oscar contender, with Margot Robbie and Diego Calva also leading the ensemble cast. Pitt admitted that his character, Jack, hits a little closer to home in his current view on the world.

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“Sadly enough, that melancholy may be my natural mode of being, some congenital melancholy,” Pitt said in a W Magazine cover story. “But no, I think there’s a weariness that takes over with the character as he moves on. There’s a world-weariness that I can certainly relate to a little bit.”

Pitt continued, “At this time, more of us are trying to tear each other down than help each other up. I get a little weary.”

The Academy Award winner, who previously opened up about how pottery was a therapeutic art form, noted that he immediately connected with Chazelle’s “Babylon” script.

“I’d been following Damien since ‘Whiplash,'” Pitt said. “The script came, and it was 180 pages. I said, ‘This thing is a masterwork. But what’s going to get cut?’ Because it’s really hard just to get 120 pages in there. And he said, ‘Nothing. I’m going to pace it a minute a page. I’m going to have it moving.'”

According to Pitt, Chazelle cited Martin Scorsese’s “GoodFellas” and “Casino” as inspirations for the sprawling “Babylon” storyline.

“You know Damien’s films; there’s a rhythm — a syncopation — to the scenes,” Pitt added. “The way he puts it together and doles out the information. There’s always this kind of movement that I think comes from his early days as a jazz drummer. I find that I’m looking for that in life, you know? We all need to find the music in the day.”

Pitt formerly told IndieWire’s Anne Thompson that he was “surprised by how much stayed in the movie” that was filmed. Chazelle added that Pitt and Robbie’s “star power” was what propelled the film forward despite its massive budget and COVID-19 delays.

“The whole movie seemed to fall apart,” Chazelle said of the pandemic, especially when “La La Land” collaborator Emma Stone parted ways with the project prior to Robbie replacing her. “We got lucky that Brad stuck around and Margot happened to be available. Thank God. We went through several regime changes. We were lucky no one decided to kill us.”

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