Brad Pitt whose next film ‘Killing Them Softy’ releases on October 5 talks about his film, character and also Bollywood’s most popular jodi Saif and Kareena.
Tell us about your character in Killing Them Softly?
I play Jackie Cogan, a professional enforcer who investigates a heist that went down during a mob-protected poker game. I am the smooth operator who is ‘hired to kill’ in this brutal crime drama full of bad men. The film is an adaptation of George V Higgins’ novel Cogan’s Trade, with the action from the 70s brought down to depict the 2008 financial crisis. So in that sense, Cogan belongs to the modern social setting.
How was it working with Andrew Dominik once again after The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford?
Andrew has become a great friend of mine and Jesse James remains one of my personal favorites. I thought it was one of the best movies Andrew has made till date. I am fortunate that he chose me to play the principal character of the infamous gang leader. It will always be a special film as I won the Best Actor Award at the Venice Film Festival for playing the legendary outlaw. We developed a strong bond since that film. For Killing Them Softly, he just had to lay out the story and we were done. I was hooked. This is our second gangster outing but this one is set against a political backdrop.
“Cogan’s Trade,” the book the movie is based on, was written in the 1970s. How does that mix with the modern setting?
We are always looking for stories that say something about our time and who we are. If Cogan’s Trade is about the heists and hits of a criminal underworld written in the ‘70s; its story only reflects the criminality underpinning the US’s financial crisis and the “great divide” in today’s America. The film’s final scene takes place on the night of Barack Obama’s election victory, wherein my character Jackie bleakly assesses the state of the nation. America is not a country, it’s a business. I read the script at the height of the mortgage crisis, when people were losing their homes right and left. It was criminal. It was the political weight of the film that attracted me to the project. I certainly felt on reading the script that this was making a commentary. I felt I was reading a gangster film and then … it coalesced that this microcosm was saying something about the macro-world.
It is an honest reflection of real life. We live in a violent world. I certainly grew up hunting, which is a very violent act. I saw it as absolutely important to film.
How was it working with your co-star James Gandolfini & Richard Jenkins in the movie?
It was a wonderful experience working with the two. Watching Jenkins, I felt like I was watching Peter Sellers, really, and I mean that. And then watching Gandolfini I felt like I was watching (Marlon) Brando. For an actor, you have respect for other actors when they do something that is under the skin and unexpected and something I would have never expected. You really enjoy it, and this was one of those experiences.
Is it true that you do not feel “safe without the gun”? Are you motivated to keep the gun after working on Killing Them Softly?
America is a country founded on guns. It’s in our DNA. It’s very strange, but I feel better having a gun. I really do. I am very protective about my family and that is what motivated me to keep the gun. I have learnt to use the gun in a better way after working on Killing Them Softly.
What do you think about the Bollywood Saifeena pair as many see them and relate it to Brangelina?
(Laughs) Well, they are a good looking couple! No two individuals in a relationship can be the same as another so I don’t know if it is correct to compare them to us. But I am glad they will soon be getting married and I wish them all the luck and a beautiful life ahead.
