You may have thought he was just pouting at the camera, but Brad Pitt follows a profound and complicated acting method
Unusually for a movie star of his stature, Brad Pitt has never appeared on Inside the Actor's Studio. Perhaps this is because he doesn't want to spend an hour of his life being fawned over by a creepy-eyed interviewer and a room full of drippy sycophants, but it's more likely that he's just very wary of revealing the secrets of his acting method.
Because, make no mistake, Pitt has an acting method. It's why he can flit from action to comedy to impressionistic, dinosaur-heavy meditations of the meaning of life itself with enviable ease. But what's the secret behind Pitt's style? Is it that he's really pretty? No. Well, yes, a bit. But mainly no. In fact, Pitt has a long and complicated process that's kept firmly under lock and key. If only there was a Brad Pitt Method Acting School that could teach youngsters exactly how to perform like their idol, then the world would be a much better place. But while we all stand around trying to will such an institution into existence, I've drawn up a prospective curriculum. Here are the secrets to Pitt's success:
Module one – Prepare
Physicality is a huge component of Pitt's acting repertoire, so he trains hard before each role. He climbed mountains for Seven Years in Tibet, boxed for Fight Club, and took up sword fighting for Troy. Presumably he also scalped Nazis for Inglourious Basterds and attended several Bereaved Partners of Decapitated Women support groups for Seven, although this is unconfirmed.
Module two – Don't be afraid of accents
Like Meryl Streep before him, Pitt has always been eager to leap on a potentially embarrassing accent without a second thought. Lesser actors might have baulked at playing an IRA terrorist or an incomprehensible Irish boxer or, as with Benjamin Button, a kind of half-Gump, half-Kermit dimwit. But not Pitt. True, he bodged every one of them, but at least he tried. That's more than, say, Sean Connery ever did.
Module three – Touching your face means that you're being profound
Thelma and Louise is widely regarded as the film that launched Pitt into the stratosphere, and it's often claimed that this was down to his well-defined abdominal muscles. However, this couldn't be further from the truth. In truth it's because, right before every one of his lines, Brad Pitt touches his face. It's a gesture that says "I am sensitive". It's a gesture that says "I am thoughtful". It's a gesture that says "Have you SEEN how pretty my face is? I mean Jesus".
Module four – Where possible, date your co-star
In the movies, chemistry is all. And what's the best way to get chemistry? By forging a romantic attachment to your co-stars, of course. Pitt is the king of this – he did it for Cutting Class, Head of the Class, Kalifornia, Seven and Mr & Mrs Smith. His forthcoming film Moneyball co-stars Jonah Hill, and I apologise for the mental image you're now entertaining.
Module five – Always seem a tiny bit stoned
To be Pitt in most films is to be unaware of everything going on around you. This is obvious in films where he plays idiots, like Burn After Reading or The Mexican, but look a little harder and you'll see it pervading almost all his roles. His Achilles could barely focus both eyes at the same time, and in Meet Joe Black he played cinema's most easily confused human personification of death.
Module six – Be the most attractive man of your entire generation
He may have shied away from his pretty boy image in films like Kalifornia and Twelve Monkeys, but Pitt is always still very obviously Pitt in everything he does. Which is why, if he doesn't feel like giving much of a performance, he can always just grin at the camera until his dimples have turned the female half of his audience into mush. Handy trick, that.
not mine.credit and source: THE GUARDIAN
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