Brad Pitt on balancing privacy and exposure

Brad Pitt appeared on Larry King Live last night to promote his new film and talk about his Make It Right project a year after he first toured the building site with the talk show host. Pitt discussed the election, the difference he hopes to make in New Orleans for families displaced by Katrina, and his family. He was guarded but gave some funny general statements about his kids and talked about how fulfilling it is to be a father. Pitt also addressed the reasons why they decided to sell the first photos of Shiloh and the twins to magazines:

On having kids: it wears you out
King: Do you think — do you think having kids — as you have so many — keeps you young?

Pitt: I have so many. No, man, it wears you out. Are you kidding? I’m aging fast.

King: But there’s nothing better in the world, right?

Pitt: It’s worth every second of it.

King: There’s nothing better in the world than being a father.

Pitt: Not for me there’s not. No, not for me. I would agree with that

On his wild past: he got it out of his system
Of course, you know, I got to spend a few decades being idiotic and hell-bent and solipsistic, and everything else. So, you know, I got time to get all that out of my system. So …

King: You mean there was a wild Brad Pitt?

Pitt: I mean, wild in my book, yes. Yes, sure.

Pitt: Yes, I got away with a lot, Larry.

On balancing privacy and exposure for his family
Well, the pictures for “W,” you know, it’s a really strange feeling. It’s something Angie and I had to talk a lot about, especially with the birth of Shiloh. You know, these pictures were going to come out — these pictures are — you know, I’m talking about the pictures of the kids.

There’s a bounty on our heads. And these pictures are going to come out at some point. And they’re going to be chasing us, and they’re going to — they’re going to go to the ends of the earth to get these photos. Video Watch Pitt on privacy »

And we just thought, well, maybe we could — since there’s such a bounty, and that bounty is so obnoxious, we could take that money and funnel it to something good. And that’s what we decided to do.

It’s still a bit uncomfortable to do such a thing, but I know it’s right in the end. And that was a decision we made.

The “W” photos were just — we just didn’t want to leave the house, so we just figured we’d do it ourselves, and had a good time doing it.

[From the CNN.com transcript of Brad Pitt’s appearance on Larry King Live, aired 10/5/08, subheaders added]

I like how Pitt explained their decision to sell the baby photos as something that wasn’t taken lightly and that he still is not entirely comfortable with. What would you do if your family was hounded like that? People have broken into their homes, laid in wait in the woods only to get into bloody fights with their security, and have stalked and harassed them for years. They try to place nice when they can and occasionally stage cute photos with the children, but also work to minimize the impact on their family. It’s a hard balance to strike and one that it’s clear they still struggle with.

Pitt also talked about the place he calls his family’s “base camp”, New Orleans, and said that they feel the most at home there. He said “it’s a place that we can actually walk on the streets,” and described how his neighbors kind of wave and let them go on their way. “They’ve got their own thing going here,” Pitt explained.

Pitt mentioned that he experienced a sense of his own mortality making his critically lauded film The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. He said it made him realize that he only has so much time left, which made him question how he was living his life. “How do I want to use [that time]? And who do I want to spend it with?… This film just makes me want to hug my kids and call my folks.”

You can read the transcript of Brad Pitt’s Larry King interview on CNN.com.

Here are some more excerpts from Pitt’s interview last night: