Brad Pitt covers Details: ‘I’ve discovered I don’t suck at being a dad.’

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Brad Pitt did an absolutely gorgeous photo shoot for Details Magazine for the November issue, to promote Fury (out this Friday). The photos are by Mark Seliger – you can see the full slideshow here. In some of the photos, Brad is giving me strong Garrett Hedlund vibes. I wonder if that’s why Angelina cast Hedlund in Unbroken? It’s Brad Pitt in nature, talking to trees and thinking in poetry. Brad Pitt on a motorcycle. Brad Pitt staring into the distance pensively. Deep thoughts by Brad Pitt. Details hasn’t released the full interview, but they did include some quotes in the slideshow:

On fatherhood: “I’ve discovered I don’t suck at being a dad.”

The paparazzi: “My soul was stolen by the camera so long ago, I don’t have to think about it anymore. One definition of freedom is the ability to follow your bliss without being watched, recorded, scrutinized.”

His comfort with the outdoors: “I grew up in the Ozarks—something resembling Mark Twain country. The woods, rivers, bluffs, lakes, and caves have all left an indelible mark on me. And I’m quite reverential when it comes to a tree. On my forearm, I had tattooed 94.9m (311.4ft)—the height of the largest sequoia.”

Moments of solitude: “My greatest moments of solitude…are found in the land, on the road…I try to carve out time for a solo ride in every country I travel to, from the Highlands of Scotland to the Atlas Mountains of Morocco to the belly of India. I haven’t even come close to fulfilling my list—yet. But in the traffic of L.A. with a helmet on, I’m just another a–hole on the road.”

Choosing roles: “I choose a role solely by how it speaks to me. And I sit in a fortunate seat where I can pull the trigger on the more difficult films. I was once talked into a film for ‘career maintenance.’ I have not made that mistake since.”

[From Details]

Eh, what do you want me to say? The quotes give me Matthew McConaughey vibes and I wonder if that’s the point. Everyone’s on the McConaughey train these days after MM turned his career around with Dallas Buyers Club and True Detective. Now it seems like more actors are staring off into the distance and waxing poetic about space and time and nature and the meaning of the cosmos. Dude.

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Photos courtesy of Mark Seliger/DETAILS.

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72 Responses to “Brad Pitt covers Details: ‘I’ve discovered I don’t suck at being a dad.’”

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  1. lisa2 says:

    Brad has always talked this way. I don’t think he is trying to channel Matthew.. he doesn’t have to.

    I love the photos. I’ll be getting this issue. The pictures on the bike are my favorite. That location is stunning.. so quite. We forget that there are places like that.

    Looking forward to seeing Fury on Saturday. It looks great.

    • Louise177 says:

      I was going to say the same thing. Brad has always earthy, philosophical way of speaking for years. Baffled why people claiming he’s copying Matthew.

      • Greata says:

        @lisa2 totally Agree. I think he is actually quite a thoughtful man, but he simply is not always great at articulating his thoughts and this makes him sound a little stilted.

    • MrsB says:

      Yes, he really has. I’m pretty sure he just stays permanently stoned 😉

  2. Cora says:

    Hmmm I wonder what the “career maintenance” film was.

    • magda says:

      Troy? After this he made more interesting choices.

      • Rhiley says:

        Yeah, that was such a weird film. He looked so weird in it too. I think Val Kilmer was right about even Brad’s muscles being fake in the film.

      • sauvage says:

        I’d say it was ‘Meet Joe Black’.

      • Emma - the JP Lover says:

        I think it was “Interview with the Vampire.” He has always talked about how much he absolutely HATED that film and was depressed throughout the entire shoot.

    • Esmom says:

      I was thinking the same thing. The Mexican is what jumped to my mind, but that was probably too minor.

    • pwal says:

      Maybe it was Meet Joe Black.

      Although I liked it, it never made sense that it was 2hr45min long (give or take). Yes, Brad has made many more movies that length, but for a romantic drama taking place in modern times, it was much too long. Mind you, I didn’t want to see Tambor or Marcia Gay Harden’s parts pared down, and I suspect that those two would’ve been the casualties if they got a decent editor in to cut it down.

      • V4Real says:

        I’m definitely going with Meet Joe Black. I vaguely recall an interview with Brad and Oprah and he mentioned bad career choices. Oprah chimed in and said ” like Meet Joe Black” and they both just laughed.

    • Diana B says:

      Oh no, please let it not be Meet Joe Black! that’s the only movie I have found him attractive and he is just so sweet in it. Let it be Troy because MJB was the bomb.

  3. lower-case deb says:

    the Details photos are the best i’ve seen him in but the interview (or what snippet of it) is hard for me to read. maybe i’m shallow that way but i much prefer the interview he did with Australia news.com, much more candid.

    the Details one sounds like Chanel Earth Rotates Around My Perfume: the Extended Alphabetti Soup Edition.

  4. Andrea1 says:

    He is a hot man! That’s all

  5. Jess says:

    I’m giggling at the picture with him clutching his necklace, otherwise he looks great, and I’m not even a big fan of his. He does sound different, less frat boy stoner and more adult, so that’s good. Wonder what movie he was talking about being career maintenance?

    • LadyJane says:

      Me too. The photo of the hand in his shirt is toooo posey. But he is beautiful nonetheless. The one Lainey had (from this photo series) of him just leaning against the tree was way sexier and less try-hard.

    • sauvage says:

      Look closely again. Not only is he stroking his necklace, he’s also totally stroking his weener with the hand in his pocket, isn’t he? 😀

    • Kiddo says:

      I have a strong response of secondhand embarrassment for him in that tree shot.

  6. pwal says:

    No offense, but Pitt’s career turnaround has been in progress for the last ten years. If anything, McConaughey picked up Pitt’s playbook.

    Moving on… there’s a Details video too:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mXvmZ-5e9U

  7. Frida_K says:

    I like “older Brad” much better than I did “younger, pretty Brad.” Getting older suits him.

    Of course, he is the husband of the Excellent and Wondrous Dame Angie, so basically he can do no wrong in my completely and unapologetically Brangeloonie mind.

    🙂

    • Andrea1 says:

      🙂

    • lower-case deb says:

      like Brad said in the Access Hollywood interview “that’s Dame *Commander*” as he beamed at the cameras.
      he’s like Head Cheerleeder of Brangeloonies.

      plus i like Pitt in marketing mode, he can turn on the charm like nobody’s business.

    • Josefa says:

      Same here, I think aging suits him. Young Brad was way too pretty for my liking, age makes his face harsher and manlier. I dig.

    • Chris2 says:

      100% agree Frida, I’m in your gang
      🙂

    • phlyfiremama says:

      YES~!Perfectly stated. “My unapologetic Brangeloonie mind” bwahahaha

  8. Tiffany27 says:

    I bet he is a really good father.

  9. MrsBPitt says:

    I love my Brad…but I never really like his interviews…”I’ve discovered I don’t suck at being a dad”…
    He always sounds dumb and I don’t think he is. Why can’t he just say “I’ve discovered that I love being a dad”…and God, after MM’s Oscar accecptance speech….(nonsensical rambling)…why would anyone want to imitate him…

    • Dany says:

      I think he is just really bad at giving interviews. I don´t know much about his biography but i heard he studied journalism or so? So he can´t be that dumb as he often seems in interviews. I think he tries way too hard to sound cool + intelligent. It doesn´t work, he comes across as either dumb or pretentious.

    • GoodNamesAllTaken says:

      That’s a good observation. In ever thought about it before, but he does sound dumb in interviews.

      And totally agree with body needing to copy MM
      Alright alright alright
      Gag.

    • Esmom says:

      I love him, too, and I agree that his interviews often sound stilted but not contrived in the way MM often sound to me. I always get the feeling Brad’s trying very hard make sure he doesn’t come off as anything but humble, which isn’t a bad thing, but the effort he puts into it kinda takes away from a natural-sounding delivery.

      All that said, the sequoia tattoo description made me lol. It’s like he wanted to play off of Angelina’s numerical-themed tattoos…she already has each family member’s coordinates, so he chose…a tree.

    • Kiddo says:

      I think “(I/you) don’t suck at” is a colloquialism that allows you to admit competence or give compliment, without sounding like a braggart or getting too hyperbolic on someone’s accomplishments. It’s also a ‘cool/cheeky’ turn of phrase. He’s applying the ‘everyman’ speech pattern to come across as relate-able. Or he doesn’t feel obligated to flower up his language, or he’s not bright, as another option you mentioned. At least he didn’t say “amazing, awesome” or “literally” (not in the excerpt, anyway). Props.

      I’m more surprised that no one has tired of this narrative with him. It’s the same over and over about him being a dad, the same way it’s over and over about Diaz not wanting kids.

  10. Abbott says:

    I’m not on the McConaughey train. You see the Lincoln commericals? That guy can’t drive. One minute he’s waxing on about changing the world one starfish at a time and the next we’re all careening off into the galaxy like Sandra Bullock. Nope. I’ll stick with my Hugh Jackman scooter gang.

    • Rhiley says:

      I don’t get Matthew McConaughey either. If anything, I think he (MM, not BP) is more like Mickey Rourke. He destroyed his looks with some really bad plastic surgery, and too much fake tanning; during a moment that looked like the end of his career he got an Oscar bump (Rourke did to for the Wrestler), and people are somewhat interested in him again, but it likely will not last long.

    • Kiddo says:

      He reminds me of a Muppet, in profile, in that commercial, all nose and no lips. Plus his vocal affectations are off the charts.

    • GoodNamesAllTaken says:

      Can’t stand him. Ugh, I’m from the south and grew up with so many MM’s, just thinking they were God’s gift to women and could oil their way out of anything with their “charm.” No thanks.

      • Esmom says:

        Yes, exactly. I’m from/in the midewest but I knew frat guys in college just like that and to me MM comes off as eternally in “southern charmer frat boy” mode.

  11. Karen says:

    My GAWD, he looks fantastic.
    The motorcycle pics are my favorite, but there isn’t a bad one in the bunch.

    • Rhiley says:

      I agree. Some of the poses are a little over the top but overall absolutely gorgeous. I love Brad on a motorcycle, and in the woods. He looks like he has lost some weight as well. I hope I am in as good shape at 50 as he is.

      • Esmom says:

        The one where he’s laying in the clover or whatever plants those are made me laugh, he looks like he fell and they just decided to go with a shot before he scrambled to get up.

    • Esmom says:

      Agreed, except for the cover. I hate what he’s wearing there — ugh, that scarf! The whole package including the goatee reminds me of KFC’s Colonel Sanders, minus the iconic black tie.

  12. Lucy2 says:

    I don’t find him that attractive, but I really like the theme and styling of the photoshoot.

  13. Jessica says:

    The third picture looks like he’s getting to second base with himself.

    His interviews are so painful to read. It’s like listening to a clueless college student trying to prove how deep and complicated they are. At least McConaughey has some fun with it occasionally.

  14. Indira says:

    I love how he says ‘the belly of India’ when it was really my little city…nowhere near being the belly of India 😀
    Angelina was shooting parts of A Mighty Heart in a semi gated community just over a seven minute walk from my house. Oh, the strings all of my friends tried to pull trying to get invited to dinner at the house next door to where they were shooting! Brad ended up taking Maddox and hanging out with the guy I was sorta seeing at that time…something said guy decided to tell me AFTER the fact! The almost brush with the Brange 😀

    • fyi says:

      There were pictures of them in a few Indian cities during those months, but not sure what qualifies as the “heart”. They may also have gone places where they weren’t photographed…less camera phones back then & he would be wearing a helmet.

      • Indira says:

        He did go out on his bike when he was in my city so I suppose I thought that’s what he was talking about. There were pictures, if I remember correctly.

  15. starrywonder says:

    I do not see him channeling MM either.

  16. Amal says:

    Fury 78% in RT

  17. Lori says:

    This is what long term pot smoking does to a persons conversation skills.

  18. Hissyfit says:

    I agree with his motorcycle comment. I’ve lived in CA for a short year and I hate motorcycle drivers! They drive in the middle of the road, swerving and cutting you off like they’re the king of the road. They are indeed a*holes on the road!

    I do not like his mustache but he look so hot in these photos!

  19. Cherie says:

    He was douchey long before MM.

  20. Josefa says:

    I think Brad says crap like this thinking it sounds better on his head than it actually does. But I wouldn’t call him pretentious or dumb, I just think he’s not very eloquent. Same goes for Matt, really. Judging both of them as a whole, I wouldn’t feel comfortable using the same words to describe them and, say, James Franco.

  21. BlueeJay says:

    His he playing with himself in that black and white picture? Just no words. Fine I guess in a magazine but if my friends actually talked like this – well they wouldn’t be friends long. I’d be sick of them in about an hour. Nice he let’s us know he is a good dad.

  22. Shantal says:

    He looks good.

  23. I’m pretty sure that Garrett Hedlund was cast in Troy because he gave off “Brad Pitt vibes.” Everyone was supposed to think that Patroclus was Achilles because he was wearing Achilles’ armor.

  24. Camille (The Original) says:

    Love the photos, gorgeous.

  25. Dallas says:

    Bless his heart…. Just so hard for him to try and form a sentence or, an original thought. Unless he is acting, where he has memetized his lines!

    • norah says:

      well of course but at least he has learnt to spell properly and the fact that he is uber successful both in films and off screen makes it better.

  26. Mika302 says:

    Wow…..the hate on here is real….

  27. Kim1 says:

    Brad has his wife and kids,his Oscar,his furniture business,his winery,his $200M fortune,etc
    Haters going to hate its what they do best

  28. Wingnut says:

    Thank you. Those photos and those quotes are literally the most laughable things I’ve seen all week! “I got meeself a naas tattoo of the tallerst tree on earf, cuz i’s all intrusting nayow”. BEST. For the record, Pitt really didn’t speak this way for most of his adult life, but peeps can go on ahead believing it. This stuff is GOLD!!!