Brad Pitt: fatherhood helped me find Button character more easily

As Angelina Jolie was inspired by motherhood for her new film Changeling, Brad Pitt has said his experience as a father helped him getting into character for his new film The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

The film, based on a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald story from 1921, sees Brad’s character born as an 80 year old man and getting younger as the years pass - while engaged in a lifelong love affair with Cate Blanchett’s character, who ages in the conventional way.

Speaking to the LA Times recently, Brad explained his own life experiences over the past few years - his divorce from Jennifer Aniston and his relationship with Angelina Jolie, plus becoming a father to six children - helped him find depth for Button’s character quickly: “I don’t have to grope as much for the character [as I used to for other films].

“I can get there quicker, so it’s not as much trial and error. As I get older, more experiences, I’m more fine-tuned in what I’m after, what I think speaks in the piece. And lastly I want to hurry and get home to my kids.

“I had a whole other life and I got to experience a lot. And I probably got away with more than I should. And it kind of ran its course, you know, it kind of hit a dead end.

“[Fatherhood is] the direction I always thought I would go in. But not until, with Angie and it felt like a natural evolution, a natural direction.”

He added that the film’s love story can’t help but be a tragedy: “It’s a tragedy in the sense that any love involves loss, and that’s the risk you take.

“And the greater the love, the greater the loss. I certainly feel that now with the woman I’m with, and the children that I have. But whatever the course may be, this time together is extraordinary.”