Brad Pitt in conversation

Looking back to when you first become famous, what was the most surprising thing to you?

That anyone even cared! [laughs] And I don’t mean that in a really caring way. What I mean is that people are interested in what color your hair is.

Is it true that one of your first jobs was dancing around in a chicken suit?

Sort of. When I got to L.A., there was this thing called the Job Factory where there was a listing on a board full of odd jobs. Say someone needed a couple of guys to deliver refrigerators out to college campuses for two weeks. I would take that job. And when El Pollo Loco was opening up a new franchise, they needed some assholes standing around in a chicken suit to wave people in and say “Grand Opening!” Well, I was that asshole. I also drove strippers around. So there were a lot of weird odd jobs. But it was great; you could still go to acting class in between. And I wasn’t getting any auditions at the time.

And then came Thelma and Louise and you were “the next big thing”.

Was I?

It was the beginning of a stellar career . . .

You’re never thinking that far in advance. It’s much more about trying to figure out who you are in the business and what you want to do with the opportunity once you get it. It’s mainly chasing opportunities and being fortunate enough to get a break and then what you do with it. That was the nineties for me.

Can you tell us a little bit more about that time?

I loved movies. That was my way out, they showed me the world. I had never been west of Colorado. I had been to Florida, but I had seen very little of the world. [Brad Pitt was born in Oklahoma and grew up in Springfield, Missouri.] Movies showed me different cultures and how people respond in different situations. When I got into acting, they were pushing me towards sitcoms. And I was like, “I can’t do that. I don’t have any feel for that.” Films were special for me. Those were the kind of stories I wanted to be in. Then it took a whole decade to figure out what I wanted and what I could offer. There were some good steps and some missteps. And it took even longer to figure out why I got to be successful and not one of my contemporaries. But at the time, I was just broke, trying to feel my way through it.

Did you ever consider that you could actually be famous one day?

There’s no handbook on fame, and I certainly didn’t understand it or had any idea what fame was at the time. I don’t know why I was drawn to films other than they were a great schooling for me growing up. Like I said, they pointed me towards the world and other ideas of how you can live your life instead of just the vacuum I was living in. So that was the appeal. Later on, I realized that there was also the fear of meaninglessness, the fear of your life not amounting to anything, and the desire to leave some sort of monument to it, as if films could give you some inner peace or self-worth.

Is there one movie in particular that changed your life?

It’s more like an experience that you have at a younger age. I can think of films that made me want to get out and travel the world and meet people who react to things differently or who have a different point of view. I do have this distinct memory of seeing Saturday Night Fever. I had to sneak in because (...)

→ Read the full interview in rampstyle #34 “On Any Sunday”.