  Brad Pitt (Photo: Mark O'Neill, Sun Media)
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Brad Pitt blazed into Toronto yesterday just as the Venice Film Festival named him best actor for his manic, brooding turn as outlaw Jesse James.
"I was really surprised. I didn't expect (the award) at all. It has been a long road ... I could play it down, but it's great fun," Pitt said during a news conference prior to the North American premiere of the film at the Toronto International Film Festival.
"We all have our jobs and want to get really good at it. So it's a real honour. I hope everyone gets to experience it."
It's no small triumph for Pitt, who also produced The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. The film, shot in Alberta and Manitoba in late 2005, has been besieged in recent months with reports of behind-the-scenes woes and production delays.
"There were the usual squabbles, but everyone here gave blood for this movie," director Andrew Dominik said, joining Pitt alongside co-star Casey Affleck and co-producers Dede Gardner and Jules Daly.
Pitt and Dominik said although the movie was originally scheduled to be released last September, that simply wasn't enough time to pare down the raw footage into its final lyrical form.
(As Dominik noted of the Ron Hansen novel from which the film is adapted, "The only thing it didn't have was a plot.")
The decision was then made to hold it for a year until this fall while "some tweaking" occurred. In the end, Dominik believes the early negative reports may turn out to be a blessing because "the movie is a lot better than people expect."
Or it may not be what they expect at all -- especially if they're anticipating a rip-snorting Hollywood duster when it opens wide Sept. 21.
Pitt described it as a "psychological drama" while Dominik views it as a gangster saga that just happens to unfold more than a century ago. Others, though, will pick up on another thread woven throughout the story -- that James was the brightest star of a celebrity culture just as prevalent and insipid as our own present day.
"It's not completely the main point, but it is an aspect of it," Pitt said, adding while he was conducting research, he was taken aback by how the seamier side of the media was "alive and well" even then, trading in sensationalism and fabricated facts. "Not much has changed."
Further pushing the parallels, Ford (Affleck) is envisioned as a 19th-century celebrity stalker, if you will, who worms his way into the outlaw's life.
And while Pitt's security is considerably more substantial than the six-shooters James wore, it nevertheless didn't prevent a crazed female fan from mobbing the star at the recent Venice festival.
"I haven't been jumped like that in some time," Pitt said.
That said, he doesn't intend to isolate himself from the public, even if the incident reminded him how vulnerable stars can be.
"I don't want to change my life."
He is likewise philosophical about fame itself. "I know the deal. I understand the trade-off ... and we manage it."
The only issue, he said, is when the attention turns into "a full-frontal assault" on his family. "In this day and age, that's the only thing that bothers me."
(And he can laugh about the absurdity of it, too. He took note, for example, that during the news conference, each time he gestured or shifted, the sound of photographers clicking away erupted. "I make a crazy face and that's the one on the front page," he said -- before mugging for the cameras anyway.)
Speaking of family, there is, of course, his off-screen partner Angelina Jolie, with whom he was quoted in Venice as saying he is ready to have another child. They already have three adopted children -- Cambodian Maddox, 5, Vietnamese Pax Thien, 3, Ethiopian Zahara Marley, 2 -- and one biological child, 15-month-old Shiloh Nouvel.
In addition to being the mother of his children, Jolie, Pitt said, is also his chief critic and closest career advisor. "I rely on (her advice). She's my best sounding board. Sometimes she pisses me off."
Not, though, when it comes to The Assassination of Jesse James, apparently. "She loves the film."
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