Brad Pitt's full Parade interview

The article opens with a strong statement: ‘My life has been about big changes [...] It’s always been that way. When I go down a path, I take it to the end. Then I take another one. I took the path of not having kids—now it’s time for family.” Parade has their full interview with Brad Pitt up on their site, which you can now read in its entirety right here.

The other day I posted some of the sneak peek snippets from Brad’s interview and it was already wonderful. Reading the full thing is even better. Author Dotson Rader was lucky enough to be invited right into Brad and Angelina’s home in Los Angeles to sit down and conduct the interview. I’ve always thought those are some of the best ones because where else can you be more relaxed than in your own home?

The article goes on to state what fans already know – that Brad and Angelina together are a humongous “international phenomenon” and also adds what we’ve discussed in the past, that not only are they highly photographed, they’re practically “besieged”.

Brad reveals one of his parenting tricks at one point, saying that he’s found that classical music is a great way to calm his kids down if anyone is particularly upset about something. Every parent has their little things that they do, it’s fun to know one of his!

The author describes Brad as being incredibly likable, referring to him as “relaxed, thoughtful, and unpretentious”. I like the choice of words, because unpretentious is something I have always thought about Brad Pitt in all of his interviews – he just doesn’t come across as having any big celebrity air even though he’s a top Hollywood name.

He also discusses his love of architecture and how he came into it after taking the author on a tour of the property (lucky!):

Pitt says he found a new path for himself when, in 1995, he bought a historic property in West Los Angeles that needed work and, by restoring it, discovered his love of architecture and design. He is a whiz at both, and it shows.

Immensely house-proud, Pitt takes me on a tour of his property—two early 20th-century Craftsman houses, a kids’ playhouse, two pools, and an artificial waterfall that conceals a secret stone grotto. The last, he confides, “is a great place for sex.”  The entire property is walled with fences and hedges and overlooks the city.

“This was my first architectural experience where I tried doing something myself,” Pitt says. “It is something I wanted to do for decades. This is like play to me. It’s the only thing that can take me away from any problems I may have. After a few years of work, it came out so nice. Now I’ve got so many damn kids, it’s the only place we could all fit in. We’re double-bunking rooms as it is.”

It’s so great when you can have the opportunity to do something that you love. I think it would be awesome if Brad would design a new home for his family!

I think my favorite part of the entire article is when they’re leaving the master suite and run into Angelina Jolie with Zahara and Shiloh. Apparently Angie was wearing a black body stocking, a yellow clown-style wig, and both the girls had blue hair. They were playing dress-up after a visit to a costume store.

See? The world might see Angelina Jolie dressed to kill on the red carpet but at home she’s just Mom, playing dress-up and probably looking adorably silly. Love it!

An interesting point that comes up in the article is the idea of base camp homes vs. their primary home. Brad describes the L.A. home as just a base camp, while the article goes on to refer to their home in France – Miraval, I presume – as their principal residence. I guess that sheds some light on the rumors that they’re looking to purchase Miraval (the house itself at least, not necessarily the vineyards) and would explain the renovations.

Returning to talk of his kids, Brad explained how they work with the international nature of their family, mentioning that they have projects of some sort in each of their home countries (such as the clinic in Ethiopia) and that they stress the importance of them learning their native languages.

When the author notes that he appears to be very happy, Brad says he is happy because he has love in his life. Then he adds, “As I’ve gotten older, I’ve become aware that time is fleeting. I don’t want to waste whatever I have left. I want to spend it with the people I love, and I want to do things that really mean something.”

The entire article just fills me with so much joy. It always makes me happy to hear when someone else is so obviously happy too. I’m glad that Brad did this interview with Parade because as much as I love hearing his movie-centric interviews for promotional purposes, I really enjoyed being able to get a glimpse into the more personal side of Brad and his relationship with Angelina and his kids. Generally it’s Angelina who is more open in her interviews so it was wonderful to see a more wide-open Brad.

There’s also a fantastic slideshow of exclusive photos of Brad Pitt over here to check out. My favorites are #3 and #6, what are yours? Enjoy your reading!