Brad Pitt has criticized Hollywood’s reluctance to make movies about slavery, pointing out it took a British director to do it with “12 Years a Slave.”
And he also has defended putting himself in the film, saying the move was for funding, not vanity.
“It is interesting that it took a Brit to ask the question why more films [about slavery] haven’t been made in America,” said Pitt, who produced it. He continued of the film directed by by Steve McQueen, “But it’s this incredibly moving and heroic story of a man trapped in completely inhumane circumstances.”
Pitt had been criticized for casting himself in a small role as the only sympathetic white man in the movie. But asked if he had earmarked that role for himself from the outset, he said backstage at the Independent Spirit Awards, “Not at all,” adding his appearance helped get funding. “Listen, the cold reality [is] this is difficult material to get made, to get money for. The risk was me being a distraction in a film like this, and this was the best way to do what we needed to do to put the film together. So we quite honestly worked it out that way, and Steve didn’t mind.”
Pitt was accompanied by Angelina Jolie, and the couple coyly dodged marriage questions.
Pitt put a finger to his lips as if to say, “It’s a secret,” when one reporter asked about their marital status.
They sparked rumors they’d secretly wed after Jolie was seen wearing a gold band.