Brad Pitt at Cannes I Hope My Kids Will Think I'm a 'Pretty Damn Good Actor'

Brad Pitt recently discussed his kids, growing up questioning religion and the trajectory of his enviable career at the Cannes Film Festival press conference for his latest film, 'The Tree of Life', also starring Sean Penn and Jessica Chastain. Brad plays an extremely strict, oppressive father of three boys in the highly anticipated period piece about life in 1950s Texas, which is being described as being about a boy's loss of innocence and true coming of age as a "lost soul in the modern world". The intense drama is directed by the notoriously private director Terrence Malick, whose previous films include 'The Thin Red Line' and 'The New World.'

According to Brad, his own Christian upbringing and his questioning of it growing up, was a big factor that drew him to the film.

"For me I grew up with Christianity, and I remember questioning greatly some things that didn't work for me, [and] some things did," Brad says. "I grew up being told that God's gonna take care of everything and it doesn't always work out that way, and when it doesn't work out that way, then it's God's will. I got my issues man, don't even get me started...I got my issues," he jokes.

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He also recalls his hesitation at playing such an oppressive father in the film because of the effect it would have on his personal life, particularly on his six kids with Angelina Jolie.

"You know, I think about everything I do now and what my kids are going to see when they grow up and how are they going to feel," he says. "But they know me as a dad and I hope they'll just think I'm a pretty damn good actor," he smiles.

When asked about his enviable career as one of the biggest stars in the world, and why he is more drawn to intense dramas such as 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button' and now 'The Tree of Life' instead of money-making blockbusters, he cites his desire to always try something new as the main reason his career has taken a turn for the less generic path.

"Well don't count me out of 'Mission: Impossible'...because, I'll be there," he jokes. "...I always want to find something different, that's been my focus. But the point is to just keep mixing it up and I figure I only got so many more of these that I'll get to do. I want to make sure that it has some worth to me and has some worth out there instead of something that's more disposable."

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[SpazzyMcGee1337]

I'm glad Brad Pitt has head on his shoulders isn't just a handsome actor (no homo).

[mauriciohavok]

@kantfail People usually say "no homo" to say something good about some other man but clarify that they are not homosexual, I find this completely pointless and absurd, so I mock it.

[Muskateering]

You can believe in a god (I believe in him as a creator, not someone we should bow down to for the gift of life, or a good 'after life', something not yet proven), but you DON'T have to adhere to a set of rules placed in a holy book. If religion would cure cancer, stop wars and world hunger, then that would be proof that religious people have a better life, but it doesn't, it strips them of their liberties and creationism. That is, indeed, very stifling. Brad Pitt said it well.

[kurtywurty85]

@donnafs214 Shut the FUCK UP. I am so tired of seeing this shit. "I have a relationship with Christ and I pity those who don't." That is basically what you are saying. It sounds condescending and just, pathetic. If you have this grand relationship, THEN FINE, GO HAVE IT! ENJOY IT. Do I brag about the lovely relationship that I have with my mother? No! Who gives a shit? I'm lucky to have a kick ass mom. Do I go up to people who don't and say "Haha...oh I pity you, you orphan you." No.

[Haswellarc]

@donnafs214 How can I have a relationship with someone I have never seen? What a weird character your God is.

[DuchessvonAhlefeldt]

I could sit and listen to him talking all day...

[LycanArmament]

@mauriciohavok

RMAO.

[Mulinaster]

@superhamzah85 With religion, you're given a set of rules to adhere to. Not much imagination UNLESS you decide to put effort into explaining/rationalizing it. You switch to atheism, and try to imagine a world in which such a ruleset isn't required, which DOES require imagination. If you decide to switch back, you're going to have to rationalize it up against the set of rules that you instituted to explain nonexistence.

Neither point-blank atheism nor point-blank religion require much.

[Mulinaster]

@superhamzah85 "I belived in God for 15 years, you lose this round - as it took quite a bit of imagination to conceptualize NO GOD. "

hah, I have you beat there, buddy. I was an atheist for 19 years, mostly in my younger years =)

Personally, I believe the most imagination is required when going from rule X > rule Y > rule X again, which is sort of what I went through(to a degree).

[Proghead88]

@donnafs214 When you realize (or at least consider) that the "feeling" of knowing Jesus is actually the feeling of getting closer to our own consciousness and intuitions (whether through prayer or through meditation), and giving a label to that experience. You can call it "God", "Christ", or "religion", but Atheism doesn't require a God in order to find meaning and purpose in this life, nor does it force someone to constantly search for "something new"... except information ;)