Not long ago, Brad Pitt was invited, like most stars are, to appear on Inside The Actor's Studio, the notorious TV love-in hosted by the always-unctuous James Lipton.
Pitt, however, declined. Not because he wanted to duck the scrutiny, mind you, but because he didn't believe his body of work merited that sort of slavish adoration yet.
(Regrettably, the same thought didn't cross Ben Affleck's mind before he turned up to be gushed upon.)
Far be it for us to disagree with He Who Beds Angelina, but we would argue Pitt is one of the few youngish leading men out there (he'll be 43 next month -- still a pup compared to the De Niros and Pacinos of the world) who has a resume worth discussing.
For the past decade, Pitt -- a shoo-in for an Oscar nomination for the gritty new drama Babel -- has managed to maintain his superstardom while taking artistic risks.
In turn, he's become a rarity among Hollywood's elite -- a matinee idol with street cred. (Try to say that of Affleck or Matthew McConaughey.) And, if Babel -- opening today, it casts him as a vacationing businessman rendered helpless when his wife (Cate Blanchett) is shot in Morocco -- is any indication, he may also be ready to tackle more challenging fare as he nears middle-age.
Don't think he's up to the task? Images of Cool World and Troy still seared onto your retinas?
Then cleanse the palette with this Pitt primer of sorts -- seven examples (we picked the number in honour a certain little film that concludes with Gwyneth Paltrow's head in a box) -- of the actor's sharpest, shrewdest work:
Seven films that go to show Pitt is more than just another pretty face
7. True Romance: Granted, the stars of this Tony Scott-directed pulp noir are Christian Slater and Patricia Arquette as a white-trash, would-be Bonnie and Clyde, but Pitt's barely-there cameo as a Hollywood stoner produces big and welcome laughs amid all the Quentin Tarantino-penned blood-letting.
6. Twelve Monkeys: If Babel earns Pitt a best supporting actor nomination next year, it will be the second time he's come that close to Oscar. The first came in 1995 for his work in this Terry Gilliam-directed science-fiction thriller. As an animals-right activist who time-traveller Bruce Willis encounters in an insane asylum, Pitt is all tics, quirks and bugged-out eyeballs. The performance is utterly cartoonish, but Pitt, showing a knack for lighter fare, pulls it off without looking foolish or, worse, out of his depth.
5. Kalifornia: Pitt made this 1993 ink-black thriller before 1994's one-two punch of Legends of the Fall and Interview with the Vampire, explaining why it's probably one of Pitt's least-seen films. That's a shame, too, because, as Early Grayce, a loathsome, snot-swallowing redneck psycho, Pitt undergoes a remarkable transformation. A pre-X-Files David Duchovny co-stars (alongside Pitt's then real-life girlfriend Juliette Lewis) as a novelist swept up in Early's maelstrom of violence, but it is Pitt, the golden god turned grime-stained demon, who dominates every skin-crawling frame of film.
4. A River Runs Through It: Robert Redford's 1992 film shares many of the themes as the melodramatic Legends of the Fall, but is, in the end, a more thoughtful and moving meditation on family and the bonds of brotherhood. Pitt stars as the younger, and more fearless, of two brothers raised by a stern minister in Montana during the early 1900s. Arguably Redford's most accessible and emotional work as a director, it's elegiac and deeply-felt.
3. Snatch: Pitt is like a whirling, marble-mouthed, live-action Tasmanian Devil as a gypsy boxer in Guy Ritchie's stupendously-entertaining follow-up to Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. Like that crime caper, Snatch is over-stuffed with needless characters and pointless plots, but Pitt is a standout, mostly because you can't understand a word he's saying.
2. Se7en: In 1994, Pitt could have retained his blond mane and continued down the much-trodden path of celebrity heartthrob. Instead, he embarked on a journey to, in his words, "kill Tristan" -- Tristan being the tormented, swoon-worthy hero of Legends of the Fall. That meant taking his audiences down roads they'd otherwise not venture down. First up? This terrifying 1995 entry in the seemingly-tired genre of serial killer thrillers. Director David Fincher's neo-noir -- the colour is bled out of the film stock -- casts Pitt as a none-too-bright small-town cop who thinks he's graduated to the big leagues when he's transferred to inner-city hell on Earth. Paired with Morgan Freeman's worn-down urban detective, Pitt finds himself outmatched by a murderer who patterns his ritualistic killings after the seven deadly sins. While Se7en is renowned for being that "head in a box" movie -- it clearly inspired the current Saw franchise -- it should be noted all of the murders are committed off-screen and the gore is left, mostly, to the imagination.
1. Fight Club: Pitt re-teamed with Fincher for this daring, dead-on social satire about a corporate drone (Edward Norton) whose hollow, IKEA-furnished existence finds meaning when he meets Pitt's Tyler Durden, a gaudy anarchist with plans on making bombs out of soap. Those unsettled by Pitt's acts of urban terrorism -- the film concludes with a skyscraper blown to smithereens -- would be well-advised to see Fight Club for what it is: an uproariously outrageous skewering of consumerism, self-help groups and the male id.
For audiences who paid to see these films, it was the Pitts
Meet Joe Black: Who wants to see a three-hour romantic drama about death? Uh, no one. No wonder this parable about what happens when Death (Pitt) takes a vacation was D.O.A.
Troy: Pitt stars as Achilles in this big, bloated, boring re-imagining of Greek myth and history. Directed by Wolfgang Petersen (Air Force One), it co-stars a not-bad Eric Bana and a whiny Orlando Bloom.
The Devil's Own: The pairing of Pitt and Harrison Ford seemed like a license to print money until an out-of-control production turned this thriller about a cop (Ford) who befriends an IRA terrorist (Pitt) into a flaccid dud.
The Mexican: Pitt again falters when teamed with another superstar -- Julia Roberts in this romantic comedy about gangsters and a prized pistol. The problem? It's not terribly romantic and not very funny.
