BRAD PITT, 'INGLOURIOUS BASTERD' FOR TARANTINO - by Marco Ligas Tosi

It's certainly the most awaited release of this cinematographic season. The editing of the Inglourious Basterds is almost done. The most awaited come back of Quentin Tarantino, "maybe" will be seen at this year Cannes Film Festival, from the 13 to the 24 of May. The bad lieutenant, Brad Pitt, one of the main characters, who plays Aldo Raine, boss of the "Basterds", the american soldiers who takes the scalps from the killed nazis, and cut a swastika on the ones they let go, has agreed to have a phone interview.

In Inglourious Basterds, you are again the villain, with a deep rough voice, the bad attitude, who incites some jewish soldiers to kill the nazis and take their scalps.
As an actor I like to change, to take some risks, even if I didn't grow up in a place where a boy had to prove to be a macho or a tough guy. My character, the lieutenant Aldo Raine, Aldo "the Apache" can't show any weakness to his men. His weakness has to turn out as strenght. He's stubborn, astute and fierce. He's a free man, in his own way, a man who built his life in self-denial. He's a man with a mission, but the rules he follows and defend, are the same rules that hold up his paths. The role of the lieutenant portrays Quentin's universal themes, history, life, death, love, hope, but most of all this sense of loss common to all the human beings.

In the first trailer we saw, you are yelling to your jewish american soldiers, with a rough voice, to kill as many nazis as possible, and you say the word "fate" twice. I think it's an appropriate word for this movie....
The character I play doesn't believe in fate, chance. He thinks that a man can make his own destiny. Not everybody who gets an apportunity, takes it. He's giving his men this opportunity, even though it's violent and cinic.

Maybe that's also the chance for a grown up man to play the war game, as one does as a child?
That's not the case. In others movies, I surely had the chance to let my inner child to go out and play. It's true I like to do things that remind me of my childhood, my adolescence. Everything, but the passion for guns. It's weird, I grew up in a wild place, where it was usual for a father to pass his gun to his son. That said, it's always charming the role of the outlaw, the bad lieutenant, the cowboy, the thief, the man who's always beyond the law, who lives according to his own rules. Maybe we live in a society that imposes so many rules, that sometimes we want to break them. In this case however, I don't see my character as a hero, He's only a man, thrown in a bad situation, who will make so many mistakes.

Some journalists have said that Tarantino tells the war with the language he loves the most: visionary, apocalyptic, like a comincs, maybe a little too over the lines, talking about such a dramatic subject.
It's not only a historical movie, it's a modern movie with a personal viision of a historic moment. I can't say nothing more, but it's a very provocative movie, Quentin style. In the script, Quentin tells in his own way, how Hitler stole german society, stole the culture, the education from them, brainwashing them. He made them think the jewish were not even human beings, less than that, and the Arians as the leaders of the world.

While you were shooting, all your family was "reclused" in a rented estate at Wannsee (near Berlin) with a heliport and dozens of bodyguards. When you were shooting Interview with the Vampire with Tom Cruise, you talked about how it was working with him and how he was dealing with his celebrity. Today how do you deal with your own celebrity?
I don't think there's a way to learn how to be famous. It's a beast to tame and you have to make lots of compromises. Watching Tom I've learned a lot, how to protect myself and my family. In spite of my level of celebrity, I too am part of the system but I will never compare myself to Tom, he's so very good in dealing with this. In the last years I've changed very much, but what guides me are the same wishes, desires and instinct.

I've heard that some paparazzi have pics of you and Angelina strolling around Berlin, shopping.
I've always liked berlin, it's a true melting pot, an eclectic city, dynamic and very modern. We have found an old shop where they still make some hand made "bonbons" following old traditional recipes. In the shop called "Bonbonmacherei", very colorful (it seems a movie from Felini) all the family is working to make the traditional berlin sweets. With Martin Wuttke and Eli Roth we have found a bohemian place where we had soup made only by season vegetables, very good.

How was it, working with Tarantino?
The script he wrote is one of the best I've read in years. It was him to persuade me to take the role, and I'm glad he did. Working with a director such as Quentin means a lot to me.

How about the future?
I will play with Natalie Portman in a romantic comedy. I'll be a freelance photographer following big celebrities, and she will play the role of a journalist from The New York Times looking for gossip. The movie is based on a novel by Leanne Shapton, that tells a love story of four years, through the objects of the two lovers, exhibited like in an auction.