The New York Times Reports: Brad Pitt Is an Actor
It's easy to forget that the heartthrob, Hollywood idol and father of many children Brad Pitt also has an acting career. So easy that The New York Times's Dennis Lim wrote a trend piece (of sorts) about it aptly headlined "Don't Forget: He Acts, Too." Pegged to the 2012 movie awards season set to begin in January and his inevitable Oscar nod for best actor in Moneyball, the Times treatment of Brad Pitt's apparently forgettable acting career is actually packed with interesting tidbits and insidery stories about the actor's fascinating career. Among them is this charming, frankly almost adorable account of the time Brad Pitt forgot to zip his fly:
Having just flown in from France for the premiere of Ms. Jolie’s directorial debut, "In the Land of Blood and Honey," dressed down in a long-sleeve V-neck and casual pants, Mr. Pitt was fighting fatigue and jet lag. (He downed two Starbucks cappuccinos, delivered by a Waldorf employee.) He gamely endured a photo shoot and a 90-minute conversation but lost his train of thought several times ("I’m sorry, man, I am so upside down right now"), and after a mid-interview bathroom break, he made a sheepish confession: "I did the whole photo shoot with my fly undone."
It's adorable because Brad Pitt is just a small town boy from somewhere in the Midwest or the South or something, Lim immediately reminds us:
Many of his answers had the vague, scripted ring of someone determined not to say more than necessary, though he also seemed self-conscious about his pro forma responses. "I grew up in a place where it’s considered egotistical to talk about yourself," he said, referring to his hometown, Springfield, Mo.
Not everybody appreciated the Times's reminder, however. GQ senior editor Mark Lotto took to Twitter with his disgruntled-sounding thoughts on the article. A snapshot of his feeds on Saturday morning, not too long after the article hit the web:
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Regardless of what you think about The Times's timing in discovering Brad Pitt's acting career, the article does provide a great opportunity to dig up old interviews. Take this 1990 video of Pitt's first interview with Entertainment Tonight, for instance, in which the then 27-year-old baby-faced star-to-be looks like somebody just plucked him out of an arcade in a random Missouri mall, where he was busy kicking the crap out of the high score on Donkey Kong and waiting to be discovered by Hollywood. "You seem to want to be taken seriously," the ET reporter suggested. "Yeah well," Brad responded. "Everyone wants to be taken seriously."
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