BORN TO BE BRAD - by BRAD PITT

"It was probably not the wisest way to spend a honeymoon," Brad Pitt says of filming By the Sea, a tale of a disintegrating marriage costarring and directed by his wife, Angelina Jolie-Pitt. "But then again, figting to make something together... what better metaphor for marriage? It's not a film that responds to the current zeitgeist or mode of storytelling--rather, a quiet, mature look at the challenges of love and adult loss." Here, in his own words, Hollywood's ultimate leading man lays bare the experience of acting out a bruised and bewildered relationship, and being directed by his costar in life.

"Mr. and Mrs. Smith this is not. By the Sea deals with that period when the honeymoon is well over and the couple is faced with the banality of every day and the pains of the unplanned. There are no Hallmark cards that define the next chapter, or the value of a history together. So who are you?"

"Naturally I didn't want to fail Angie's ideas, her words, but really I had absolute faith we'd figure it out."

"I play a good drunk because I've been a good drunk."

"For this one I operated on pure instinct, Angie and I have too much history and understading of each other to question beyond there. At the end of the day, we get to be parents, greeting our lovely, crazy children and talking about their day, making sure they brush their teeth, so all the tension from our day is tabled... until the next."

"The plan was to make something together, with complete autonomy, in the footsteps of Gena [Rowland] and John [Cassavetes]--and keep it a family affair. We, by our own admission, were overdue. If I'm going to work, I want to work with my wife."

"It's surprising how much I enjoy the direction of my wife. She's decisive, incredibly intuitive, knife-sharp, and might I say, sexy at her post. I trust her with my life."

"My tonal diversity in characther has been by design and comes from that restless itch for adventure and to discover more, it remains the same at any age."

"I owe my love of film to my parents and the neighborhood drive-in theater. I spent much of my summers sitting on the hood enjoying a late-night double feature with my family, but in my own world, of course."

"The fact that we can send years developing a project that then becomes part of the year's cultural narrative is the greatest reward of all. What I know is that when our kids see these films as adults, they'll not just understand what their parents were after in a performance, but they will recall our time there together as a family and the memories made."