Quentin Tarantino remembers Brad Pitt's performance in Inglourious Basterds and offers his perspective on what makes Pitt such a special movie star. Released in 2009, Tarantino's sixth feature film as a writer/director follows Pitt as Lieutenant Aldo Raine, the leader of a group of Jewish-American soldiers in France tasked with one singular duty – killing Nazis. In addition to Aldo Raine's Basterds, the World War II alternate history film also follows the young French cinema proprietor Shosanna Dreyfus (Mélanie Laurent), and her plot to assassinate Nazi Germany's leadership.
Following their first collaboration on Inglourious Basterds, the actor and auteur reunited on Tarantino's ninth and most recent film, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Opposite Leonardo DiCaprio's Rick Dalton, Pitt played the fictional Hollywood actor's best friend and stunt double – the cool, calm, and collected Cliff Booth. For the role, Pitt finally took home his first Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor following past nominations for Twelve Monkeys, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, and Moneyball.
Tarantino spoke to GQ for a recent Brad Pitt profile and offered his perspective on what makes him such as special movie star. The director discussed how the actor's shape-shifting ability is a lost art among movie stars today. Tarantino also compared Pitt's star quality to that of Paul Newman, Robert Redford, and Steve McQueen and gushed over his screen presence, remembering a special moment from filming Inglourious Basterds. Read what Tarantino said about Pitt below:
He suggests an older-style movie star. He’s really good-looking. He’s also really masculine and he’s also really hip; he gets the joke.… But the thing that only the directors that work with Brad and the actors that act opposite him really know, what he’s so incredibly talented at, is his ability to really understand the scene. He might not be able to articulate it, but he has an instinctive understanding about it. He’s one of the last remaining big-screen movie stars, It’s just a different breed of man. And frankly, I don’t think you can describe exactly what that is because it’s like describing starshine. I noticed it when we were doing Inglourious Basterds. When Brad was in the shot, I didn’t feel like I was looking through the viewfinder of the camera. I felt like I was watching a movie. Just his presence in the four walls of the frame created that impression.
Based on Tarantino's gushing praise, it's evident that even one of the most legendary filmmakers Hollywood has ever seen can still be starstruck by the talent and charm of Brad Pitt. With two collaborations under their belts, naturally the question of if they will be joining forces for a third arises. Unfortunately, time appears to be running out. In the same profile, Pitt suggested he may retire soon. His summer tentpole Bullet Train releases in theaters this August and he will follow that up with Damien Chazelle's Babylon this Christmas, but beyond that, Pitt's retirement could be near.
Tarantino has long said he wants to end his directing career after 10 films with a body of work he can be proud of. The Inglourious Basterds filmmaker has teased everything from Kill Bill 3, a Spaghetti Western, or even a horror flick for his mic drop movie, so it's unclear if even he knows what his final film will be at this point. With Pitt contemplating retirement in the near future and Tarantino's tenth and final film on the horizon, the two are hopefully destined to reunite for one last go-around for the ages.
Source: GQ