TWO FISTS FOR MR MADONNA - by Elisabeth Sereda

In Fight Club Brad Pitt already tried out the role of a boxer. In Snatch he boxes his way as an Irish gypsy through London’s underworld. Interview by Elisabeth Sereda.

SKIP: As an Irish gypsy you speak in Snatch with such a strong accent that no one can understand a word you are saying. According to rumors, it was your own idea to make unintelligible sounds instead of sayng the lines. Is that true?

Brad Pitt: (laughs) ... God, it was a total blast. Nobody could understand what I was saying. I did know what I was mumbling, but no one else did. I got to the set three days before the shooting began and had already worked a little at home in LA on my accent. But as we started rehearsals, everyone said, hey, is it clear to you that also here in England no one understands what the Irish gypsies say, right? It was then that I decided to do like Benicio del Toro in The Usual Suspects and mumble confusing stuff. Guy Ritchie thought it was cool.

SKIP: So nobody really understood, the kind of things you were saying?

Brad Pitt: Oh, yes. Everyone that knew the script. I didn’t change the most important key words. But with the role that I play in Snatch it’s really not important at all what I am saying.

SKIP: This is your second movie after Fight Club where you have to beat each other up. Is it important for you? Or do you express secret aggression in this way?

Brad Pitt: The fighting scenes seem more like a dance to me. They are choreographed thoroughly. And everything you need to learn is the rhythm. I have never gotten hit playing a boxer, in case that’s what you mean.

SKIP: Although you never play the shining hero roles and you appear mostly as the antihero on the big screen, the American magazine People has chosen you for the second time as the "sexiest man alive"…

Brad Pitt: Yes, and therefore I chose People Magazine as the most stupid magazine in the world.

SKIP: And now you are already in front of the cameras for Ocean's 11…

Brad Pitt: Yes, I play George Clooney’s little helper, his Sancho Pansa. I wanted to do the film because of George Clooney. George is a great guy, incredibly funny and totally relaxed. I just wanted to have fun and I knew that George Clooney was the best co-star to do that.

SKIP: And when do you have time between all these movie projects for your wife Jennifer? Hasn’t anyone told you that recently married couples shouldn’t spent too much time apart?

Brad Pitt: (laughs) ... Everybody is saying that. But when the actors strike starts, she won’t be able to work and then we will have all the time in the world. In the mean time we make small trips, whenever we have a couple of days for ourselves.

SKIP: Aren’t you furnishing a new house?

Brad Pitt: No, it’s not a new house, we finally want to get our old one done. I am really an architecture freak, and my wife has fortunately the same taste as I do. She looks just like me all over for arts & crafts. And then I also got myself into landscaping. I always wanted to have a Japanese garden, and now I am working on that.

SKIP: Now that it’s behind you, tell us a couple of details about your wedding.

Brad Pitt: Do you know what was the best about our wedding? The whole daylong helicopters with paparazzi keep circling over the tent, but in the middle of the ceremony – precisely when we were exchanging our vows – it was quiet. Absolute silence. No helicopter, nothing. It was like a heaven sent present.

SKIP: You were 2 years together before you decided to take the walk down the aisle; and everyone was thinking you had gotten cold feet after Gwyneth Paltrow …

Brad Pitt: The funniest thing about that is that Jennifer and I got engaged only after six months. We waited so long for the wedding only because the timing had to be perfect. I didn’t want to just fly over the weekend to Las Vegas and get married wearing jeans. Jennifer and I we knew right from the start that we were heading towards marriage. To my surprise we have a really deep relationship. And I can really recommend marriage. When you find someone who can stand you 24 hours a day, then marriage is the best that you can imagine.

SKIP: And now everyone is waiting for you to have children. A magazine even wrote that you would adopt some. That’s nonsense, right?

Brad Pitt: Total nonsense. You miss all the fun when you adopt … (laughs) … No, I want to have lots of children and I want to make them all myself … (laughs).