Brad Pitt

When Brad Pitt hit the big screen as a sweet-talking hitchhiker armed with six-pack abs and a hairdryer in Thelma & Louise, he was catapulted to movie star status. Brad went on to make his blockbuster debut in 1994 starring alongside Tom Cruise and an 11-year-old Kirsten Dunst in Interview with a Vampire. That same year, Brad smoldered onscreen as Tristan in the epic Legends of the Fall. He followed with a series of quirky and intense films like Fight Club, Se7en, Snatch and his Oscar®-nominated role in Twelve Monkeys.

By 2004, Brad was cast in a classic Hollywood leading man role as Achilles in the Greek epic Troy. Brad then met his real-life love, Angelina Jolie, in the action-packed, tongue-in-cheek Mr. and Mrs. Smith. But Brad still knows how to have fun—he and his Ocean's buddies always deliver.

"It's been four long years since I've uttered these words, and they are sure to make this audience very happy," Oprah says. "Brad Pitt is here!"

Brad Pitt and Oprah

What a difference four years can make! Since Brad last sat on Oprah's couch in 2004, he has become a proud father of six children. Will there be more? "Probably," Brad says. "It's the thing I'm most proud of. It's the greatest endeavor we've ever taken and the most interesting, most fulfilling, most rewarding thing I have ever experienced, and why should I stop?"

Along with the joys of fatherhood, Brad says he's learned to develop a thick skin. "I'm impervious to poo, snot, urine, vomit," he says. "You can't get me. You cannot break me down."
Brad Pitt

Photo: People magazine

Four-month-old twins Knox and Vivienne are the most recent additions to the Jolie-Pitt family. "They're lovely," Brad says. "He kind of looks like me and she kind of looks like Angie. It's a bit bizarre."

With four other children—6-year-old Maddox, 4-year-old Pax, 3-year-old Zahara and 2-year-old Shiloh—Brad says it was necessary to have a little help at home. "We had help in the nights because you want to be there for the other ones in the day," he says. "Not every night, because we also want to take them on ourselves and be part of that experience. In the beginning, it was mainly us trying to do both shifts."

Brad says fatherhood has had a positive effect on him. "It really tells you a lot about yourself and who you are and how you react to things," he says. "They make me better. They make me a better person as a father." The children have also brought new meaning to his life. "It makes everything else perfunctory in a way but also more fun because you've got this other thing to go home to," he says. "Even the films, I can't help but do a film thinking my kids will see that someday and that may mean something to them. So it puts an extra importance and yet takes off the importance at the same time."
Brad Pitt

As Brad and Angelina's family grows, so does the paparazzi's interest. The Jolie-Pitt children have grown up with photographers around every corner. "Their idea of the world is when we get in the car, we're going out, that there's 20 or 30 people there standing with cameras," Brad says. "They want to take your picture—this is their idea of the world at large."

Brad says living in a fishbowl can be hard on his kids. "We try to explain to them, 'Yeah, these people are a little funny, they kind of like taking pictures and they're a little weird. But it's all right.' And our little one, Zahara, said, 'Actually, Daddy, it's not all right.' And it gets to them."

Sticking together is a big part of Brad's plan to keep the family balanced. "They have their friends, and we try to keep as much normalcy as we can. And do things together, do things as a family," he says. Since the twins have joined the family, Brad says he and Angelina are focusing on making sure each child knows they are no less important. "It's worked out really well," Brad says. "They're really sweet with them and loving. They take care of them, and they have a real pride in it. It's really nice to see; they're amazing."
Angelina Jolie

Photo: W magazine

With cameras following their every move, you may think you know Brad and Angelina—but Brad says there is a side to Angelina that isn't shown in magazines and movies. "Usually when Angie's shot [for a magazine] she's seen as a femme fatale, and she does that very well. But she also has the biggest heart and just inexhaustible spirit and sweetness and goodness," he says. "She's an inexhaustible mother and great grace and the real glue of the family."
The Jolie-Pitt family

Photo: People magazine

One of the surprises of fatherhood Brad says he's come to find is that his house is full of little comedians. "They're the funniest people I've ever met," he says. "They all have their own thing." Brad says Shiloh's new thing is that she'll only respond to the names John or Peter. "It's a Peter Pan thing," Brad says. "So we've got to call her John."

When it comes to bedtime, the joke's on Brad and Angelina. Brad says his kids trick them into having "slumber parties" at night. "They're trying to kill us, they really are," Brad jokes. "We'll get them to bed, read the stories, and then one will show up about a half hour later and can't sleep and wants to read books." Like clockwork, Brad says as soon as one child falls asleep, another will wake up. "I know they've got shifts," he jokes. "They've got it worked out, you know?"

"What's so interesting is that you seem happier than you've ever been," Oprah says.

"I dare say," Brad says.
Brad Pitt in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Photo: Paramount Pictures

Brad is ready to wow audiences in a role like we've never seen him in before. In The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Brad plays a man who ages backward. Benjamin is born as an 80-year-old baby and gets younger as he ages, a plot loosely based on a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald. "It's such a lovely story dealing with those universal themes of family and the people that you meet along the way," Brad says.

Although Brad's character goes through an entire lifetime, different actors were not used for different ages—it's all Brad. "It's kind of Brad," he says. "With a lot of help from CG [Computer Graphics]."

Brad Pitt

 

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button takes place in the hustle and bustle of New Orleans in the '20s, and Brad says the movie is his love letter to the city. "I mean, New Orleans is another character in the film," he says. "New Orleans gives it this flavor of magic and mystery, and the people in it are just a great spirit to the film. They really made a huge difference." 

Although Brad describes his family as nomadic, he calls New Orleans one of his home bases. There, he says he can ride his bike around the French Quarter and sit on the porch with his family without creating a buzz. "We have some semblance of a normal life there."
Cate Blanchett as Daisy in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Photo: Paramount Pictures

They played husband and wife in Babel. Now, the spectacular Cate Blanchett is starring alongside Brad in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. She plays Daisy, who at the age of 43 finds herself at almost the same age as Benjamin. But as Benjamin gets younger and Daisy continues to grow older, their love affair becomes a bittersweet race against time. 
Cate Blanchett

Moviegoers were first introduced to this Australian actress in 1998 when she took the title role in Elizabeth and earned her first Oscar® nomination. But it was her role as an elfin princess in the Lord of the Rings trilogy that landed her on the mainstream map. While critics agree the roles Cate usually accepts—from Katharine Hepburn in the Aviator to Bob Dylan in I'm Not There—are unconventional, they've led Cate to five Oscar nominations and one win.
Cate Blanchett

Cate says love stories like Benjamin Button aren't made every day. "It's about aging and death, and those subjects are so taboo in the world in which we live," Cate says. 

Making this film, Cate says, made her reflect on her own life because she lost her father when she was 10 years old and was raised in a house with her grandmother and mother. "I had that sense of generations in the one household. So I thought a lot about my mother and also having children," Cate says. "And that's what the film does. It takes you on the whole cycle from birth to death."
Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett

Benjamin is such a unique character to transform into, but Brad says there was no big secret to becoming him. "There was a certain melody to the New Orleans accent that's real gorgeous," he says. "You just draw from people in your life."

Cate says she was able to draw from her personal experiences. "My first job was working in an old people's home," Cate says. "I love being around people who are older."
Jennifer and Michael from Illinois

When people found out that Brad and Cate were going to be on The Oprah Winfrey Show, our e-mail in-boxes were flooded with burning questions from fans around the country.

Jennifer and her husband, Michael, are Skyping in from Homer Glen, Illinois, with a question for Brad. Has Brad ever been left home alone in charge of all six children? "And how have you handled it?" Jennifer asks.

Brad considers himself to be the disciplinarian in the family but hasn't been left alone with all six children. "Four is usually my limit on my own, so far," Brad says. "I hope to advance to six."
Shane from California

Shane from Van Nuys, California, has a dating question for Cate. "I'm not your typical 25-year-old male, I'm not looking for bar bunnies, but I need your help," Shane says. "What qualities should I bring out in myself? What were you looking for when you found your husband?"

Cate says that in a relationship it is important to be able to laugh, but more importantly your bodies must be compatible. "Someone once said to me, and I think it's quite true, that if your bodies actually fit together when you're sleeping in bed—I'm not going to get into too much detail—you're in good stead," Cate says.

"You mean when you're spooning?" Oprah asks.

"When you can spoon with someone, then you're okay," Cate says. "Because you might not vote the same way, you might not have the same politics, but sometimes that works for people."

Cate also says her husband has the qualities she admires in a man. "I think it's a sense of humor, and also my husband is a very strong individual," Cate says. "So he's happy for my success, and I'm happy for his."
Christina from Canada

Christina from Ontario, Canada, says she has been a fan of Brad's for 17 years and is curious about his many tattoos.

"Let me say, if you have a partner, it's great fun. It's a great thing to go do together," Brad says. "And it becomes personal and special in its own right."
Jean is Skyping from North Carolina.

Jean, who is Skyping in from her bedroom in Asheville, North Carolina, with her mom, sister and a friend, has a question for Brad. "I was just curious if you could go completely unrecognized by the general public and the paparazzi, even if it was just for a day, how would you choose to spend that time?"

Brad says he'd like his family to be able to have a normal life. "I would like to tear down my fences. I'd like to tear down my gates. I'd like to be able to see my neighbors. I'd like my kids to be able to run in each other's yards and their yards and our yards, and I'd wave at every car that went by. That's what I'd do," Brad says. "Maybe barbecue. See the ice cream truck."
Beth is Skyping from North Carolina.

Skyping from her office in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Beth has a question about the holidays for Brad and Cate. "What are some of your favorite memories or family traditions?"

Cate says: "Well, in Australia, we sweat for Christmas. That's what we do because it's so hot." Cate's father was American, so her family celebrated an American Christmas and Cate says they were the only people in their neighborhood to celebrate Thanksgiving. "We have a traditional, big English roast, which no one wants to eat because it's so hot. So there's a lot of food," she says. "But my mother was very big on going around and helping other people at Christmas."
Brad Pitt

For the holidays, Brad says his family alternates plans every year. "Last year was in New Orleans when we stayed at home, and the lead-up is to get something for everyone and make something for everyone and open one gift Christmas Eve. The next morning we go wild," he says. "The opposite year, we travel."

Because some of the Jolie-Pitt children were born in different countries, Brad says they like to travel to the countries where they were born. "This year, we want to go to one of the kids' places of origin and spend time there and do something [helpful]," Brad says. "It's very important to us, and very important that they understand where they came from and have pride in where they came from, and that's shared amongst everyone."
Kim is Skyping from Florida.

Kim, a personal chef in Pensacola, Florida, has a culinary question for Brad and Cate. "Both of you have traveled extensively and tried many different types of cuisines. What is your favorite meal?"

Cate says she goes through stages. "I went through a stage where all I wanted to eat was muesli for three years," Cate says. "And then I went on to sushi, and the first time I fell pregnant I went completely off fish." But if Cate had to choose a last meal, she says she is simple. "Probably a bowl of rice."

Brad says he's not a very picky eater. "I'll eat anything and everything. I go through different stages, and I like the same thing for a week and two weeks," Brad says. His current favorites? "I've been enjoying the Indian food lately," he says.

See Brad and Cate in action with scenes from the movie.