'Ad Astra' Brad Pitt Goes Interplanetary in a Stunning Space

Ad Astra Brad Pitt Goes Interplanetary in a Stunning Space

Ad Astra Brad Pitt

his rugged boy next door good looks made him a household name but a gaunt Brad Pitt looked almost unrecognizable as he stepped out in Los Angeles over the weekend a white long-sleeved shirt and denim jeans did little to hide the actors shockingly slender figure in recent months the 53 year old has been locking himself away in a Los Angeles art studio while nursing a broken heart following his split from angelina jolie brad had stepped away from the spotlight.

to spend time creating a sculpture under the direction of his friend british artist thomas house ego locking himself away for up to 15 hours a day he was said to be listening to playlists of sad songs while working on the project however the weight loss may also be part of the Stars preparations for his unscreened come back Bratz next movie at Astor will begin filming in July the sci-fi film which will see him play the role of an autistic engineer whose.

father left when he was young to try and find extraterrestrial life on Neptune as an adult Brad's character is now tasked with travelling the solar system to find his father the idea for the movie was penned by filmmaker James Gray who directed the recently released movie the lost city of Z which Pitt produced who recently confirmed the impending shoot date when asked by collider.com if ad astra is his next project with pit in the starring role gray said yes yes and yes I'm terrified by it the science fiction genre is so tricky because there are elements of fantasy.

usually involved and there are also fantastical elements what I'm trying to do is the most realistic depiction of space travel that's been put in a movie I have a lot of hopes for it but it is certainly ambitious I'm filled with terror but that's fine you.

so how do you even begin to prepare to play an astronaut to do the vomit comet to do the zero crow no I'm I'm on the on the spectrum of actors I'm probably on the lazier side I mean with us all they did was the stunt team strapped me up to push me in the sky had me spin as much as I could to find that point of nausea and then go okay we won't go that far did you almost her up yeah that was the that was the whole point like how far can you go what do you do to prepare.

well I mean really fortunately James Gray our director or Hoyt or dpe or production designers I mean they really built the world and for me I mean what James and I were after something very raw very sincere very open and for that it's got to be in the moment there's not a lot of preparation other than us thinking the trajectory of this character how he cracks how he opens how he starts revealing kind of mapping that out it's really on the day.

kind of thing and what happens happens and what you get you get so what is the movie say about fatherhood well I don't think there's one simple thing to say about it I mean it it talks of it certainly looks at the the imprints our fathers have on us it's such an important relationship it's such a defining indelible imprint and it's you know it it it's me it thinks about what kind of father I am and how I can kind of father are you well that's nice you know what I mean but how I can be how I can be at my best for them what is my what do they need most.

it's height of an Altima both shot on film that's my opening question what a luxury yeah you have 35 yeah I love 30 yeah those soft net back of the car when Sharon and Polanski are driving with a hare yeah Kevin McCarthy what was oh wait okay well it means I gotta get a

geek question phantom thread when they in the driving shots yes do we shoot that on film oh yeah that was shot 35 and then I blew it up to 70 beautiful yeah PTA actually did this really cool thing if you went to the arc like to see that movie they had a special playlist of songs playing as you sat in a theater before the movie started pretty cool yeah first of all congratulations to you I have always found that the movies you make the directors allowed the cinematography and score to be leading characters as well and if you look at something like deacons on Jesse James

when he was blurring out those left and right side of the frame or Robert Richardson when we follow your character into the drive-in over the drive-in theater due to your trailer and then now this sort of nth item Oh who's one of my favorites Emmett ographers ever John interstellar than this what's your relationship like with the DP in the sense of how it affects your performance and what as you're acting what's that relationship like the lighting in the shot um you know I'm a I'm a cinematography geek as well and being a film lover and it's everything you know or everything and I've been really fortunate to work with these guys and I do I agree with you Devan hajima isn't one of our best you just you know it's a lot of it you don't it's just a complete trust really the relationship with the DP is we're just having a you know a laugh some levity and then they'll tell you if he needs you to be somewhere

we're where the lights you know with what he's trying to to achieve and and and you just go with it you you make it work um often you don't see the final result until it goes through the processing and and it's color corrected and you see oh that's what he knew it would be in the end all along in fact they always say it's not gonna look like that it's not gonna look like

that it's like the disclaimer when you're checking out the framing of a shot where you need to be there it's not gonna look like that it's not gonna look like that but a shot in like Fight Club

for example like it features coming to and you're doing that line in the camera.

is like shaking visibly and you do that line is it shaking there is that done in post when he comes towards you like that don't remember I mean coz Fincher's a mad genius with camera technique so I think I believe I remember it shaking hmm yes I believe it was shaking that that's an amazing moment there's a great sequence in the film we talk about Tommy Lee Jones is character your father taking you to black and white films the kid his character likes musicals I know you've talked a lot about going to see alien with your father but I was curious was there a particular movie a movie that hit you so hard when you were younger that it created this idea that I want to be an actor no in fact I mean yes but no but I didn't know it I didn't ever thought about acting as an option and I mean.

because it wasn't an option where I grew up it was grew up in the middle of America in the Ozarks and it was it just wasn't on the curriculum list of options you know it was until it hit me two weeks before I was gonna graduate that you know what I'm gonna go to it I'm gonna try it I'm gonna go to it but I do have I remember this i have this indelible experience we'd always go to the drive-in theater and sit out on the hood of the car my mom and dad and my brother and sister and in great you know summer night air and seeing Butch and Sundance when I was in kindergarten I think I was in kindergarten or first grade second grade somewhere in there and just bawling at the end I couldn't believe every day I didn't want I didn't want I'm gone yeah and I'm trying to hide that from my parents clothes and bears there's an amazing sequence in this film in the beginning III love your arc of your character this film because

it to me it's like a subtle breaking as he's becoming more emotional throughout the film and letting those emotions come out there's a great moment in the beginning were you kind of like your inner monologue saying put a smile on I'm looking for the exit on the door the guy comes up to you tries to grab you hug you whatever I was curious like shooting a sequence like that I mean that's a very interesting thing because as an actor or like you deal with those things in real life as well like playing that sequence out like what is that is the cathartic to shoot a moment like that in a movie well you again so much of it is discovery hmm dude you know like we didn't know exactly how we've been in this film we didn't know how we would totally achieve and he'd seen the feelings that we were talking but we didn't we just knew what we were after in this idea of how do you portray not being being disconnected and one and yearning for more but not having the ability to to do it and so seems like that all just become steps in calibrating this gentle cracking of the egg and toe instead amazing long till until the floodgates open um my favorite shot in the film some of them would've

been wait a minute ever since I saw interstellar I've just been blown away by the way he operates film um the sequence when you're falling to earth in the beginning of the movies in the trailers how are they achieving the shots of you just in your helmet screaming as you're spinning are you doing any of the spinning on wires or is that just the camera moving around you it's both it's is this incredible we had a great great stunt team read by led by Rob Alonso who came up with this thing that would spin us spin me on a like like on a cross but then would also be moving back and forth and then the cameras on this great gyro head that can spin like this so it it feels like you know we're all over there all over the place but these are you know these take a lot of thought going into them and that's and they really pay off last two questions for you you've worked with some of the greatest directors in the history of movies and I genuinely think you're one of the greatest actors of all time and I dunno I'm not just sayin X we're sitting here I actually mean that I think Jesse James is a masterpiece.

you're phenomenal thank you when you work with the filmmaker like someone like Fincher this is 20 years since Fight Club what do you take from that set isn't that well what do you take from that set and still use here like what is something that you remember Fincher telling you on Fight Club that you still take with you well first of all Finch's one of my closest friends actually every we laugh our asses off but bencher was probably the I mean meeting Fincher changed everything for me you know he just had it was the first time I heard someone talk about film who I believed in film book could could articulate it so much better than me and yeah and since then you know just the feeling on his sets you know being at being a child of 70s films like oh this guy this guy yes yes he's talking complexities he's talking the gray areas um he's talking how to achieve it with camera and those that have come before us and it just changed everything it's been been a really valuable professional relationship certainly ya know I told you this last night my wife and I to romance means everything to us and Floyd

is obviously what my favorite characters of all time I love that character when the cows and the guy the shotgun he goes who's so much a funny good you mentioned in the carb last night that you loved it where is he now and you say it's probably hanging out with Lebowski I have been thinking about that since you said that last night how would that go down what would they say to each other I would know thousand dollars to watch those guys nothing accomplished nothing absolutely nothing yeah but damn would they enjoy themselves get that movie made please let Plan B's next movie Lebowski meets boys hey congratulations all right