OlderBrad & Cate Do ‘EW’
Wahoo!! Oscars all around!! I present to you the inside photo spread of Babel’s Brad Pitt & Cate Blanchett inside this week’s issue of Entertainment Weekly November 3, 2006 issue. Here’s an excerpt from the article (full article after the jump):
Cate Blanchett was marinating in a puddle of blood on a dirt floor somewhere near the southern edge of the Sahara. Brad Pitt sat nearby, slumped over on a rock, sweat pouring off him. The temperature hovered near 112 degrees in the tiny Moroccan village that had become home to the cast and crew of Babel, the politically charged four-part epic from Mexican director Alejandro González Iñárritu (Amores Perros, 21 Grams). This place was seriously primitive, beyond the reach of electricity and, for the most part, running water. Air conditioning? Not a chance. Indoor toilet? There’s only one: See the village elder.
Lost in Translation
How the director of ”21 Grams” pushed Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, and a multinational cast through ”Babel,” his epic four-sided saga of sex, drugs, guns, and terrorism spanning three continents and several gulfs of misunderstanding
Cate Blanchett was marinating in a puddle of blood on a dirt floor somewhere near the southern edge of the Sahara. Brad Pitt sat nearby, slumped over on a rock, sweat pouring off him. The temperature hovered near 112 degrees in the tiny Moroccan village that had become home to the cast and crew of Babel, the politically charged four-part epic from Mexican director Alejandro González Iñárritu (Amores Perros, 21 Grams). This place was seriously primitive, beyond the reach of electricity and, for the most part, running water. Air conditioning? Not a chance. Indoor toilet? There’s only one: See the village elder.
To make matters worse, González Iñárritu, in his quest for supreme naturalism, had just asked them to perform Cate’s near-death scene for the 73rd time that day. The pressure was off the charts and there was just one distraction powerful enough to keep the two actors from going completely bonkers¦
”It felt out of control,” Pitt says over a year later, in a luxurious, climate-controlled Los Angeles hotel suite, recounting the weeks he spent in a state of ”frenetic anxiety” on the Babel set. ”I thought it was going to push me over the edge.” Suddenly, the 42-year-old actor leaps to his feet to demonstrate that crucial survival tool. With a hint of dramatic flourish, he grabs hold of his belt loops and yanks his jeans up to his armpits, giving himself a deep-impact wedgie of what must have been the most painful sort. ”Throughout the movie, I’d walk around like this,” Pitt says, thrusting out his backside and waddling around like a duck. It must be said that watching Pitt transform himself into an Urkel-like superdork is a sight so perplexing, it could divert a person from just about anything. ”You’ve gotta find things to make you laugh during the shoot. Cate called it the Hungry Bum.” He pauses and chuckles to himself. ”When your bum’s so hungry it’s trying to eat your pants.”
González Iñárritu’s globe-trotting melodrama was shot in six languages and on three continents. As ambitious as it is intimate, the narrative interweaves a quartet of sorrow-soaked vignettes: An American couple vacationing in Morocco (Pitt and Blanchett) are forced to depend on the kindness of strangers when struck by catastrophe; a family of Berber goatherds unravels after buying their first gun; a nanny (Amores Perros‘ Adriana Barraza), torn between work in San Diego and family obligations in Mexico, is thrown into an immigration quagmire; and a deaf-mute Japanese girl (Rinko Kikuchi) tries to cure her loneliness by prematurely uncorking her sexuality.
Babel (see EW review here) takes its title from the biblical allegory, in which man’s hubristic attempt to build a tower to the heavens compels a vengeful God to create a cacophony of different languages that stymie communication and isolate people from one another. Using this as his metaphorical jumping-off point, González Iñárritu tackles some of the most provocative issues of our time post-9/11: globalization, immigration, the spectre of terrorism. ”The film is about prejudice,” the director says, ”and the dangerous borders and walls we build that affect [communication] personally. And on a global scale, between George Bush and the Muslim world.”
Mixing politics and moviemaking has always been a dangerous game. One false move can mean the difference between Traffic and All the King’s
Men. But González Iñárritu’s single-minded determination about the project persuaded some of Hollywood’s biggest power players — Pitt, Blanchett, and Paramount’s Brad Grey, who agreed to back the movie in his first week on the job as the studio’s new chairman — to take a risk. It’s a gamble that’s already begun paying off: González Iñárritu collected the Best Director award at this year’s Cannes film festival, and the movie drew a raft of raves at Toronto. Now Babel looks poised to be one of this year’s leading dark-horse Oscar contenders. And Pitt’s nakedly emotional performance has placed him in the Academy Awards running for the first time since being nominated for Best Supporting Actor in 1996 for 12 Monkeys.
All this comes at the end of a long, tough slog. The Pitt/Blanchett story line was just a quarter of the journey for González Iñárritu and the rest of the core crew, who crisscrossed the globe for more than a year, shooting under arduous circumstances.
Dehydrated crew members in Mexico, for example, had to be hospitalized. Appropriately enough, communication was particularly difficult: The young deaf actresses in the Japanese plotline required a series of translations, from González Iñárritu’s native Spanish to English, English to Japanese, Japanese to sign. ”I had three pains I thought were heart attacks during production,” recalls González Iñárritu. ”To make this film was to give birth to a boy with four heads. Painful.”
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Alexanderina Says:
October 29th, 2006 at 4:15 pm
Hye 4C, most of them live in West Yorkshire, close to Manchester, the others lives in London, and I have a uncle that lives in Scotland. Nope Christmas is right around the corner, there is one down side to me going to England for Christmas, no BAMZS, and you guys, but I am working on a plan, which is to get a laptop
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Hey Alex - I was talking to one of my brothers the other day and he and his family are going to London for X-mas! Maybe you’ll run into him?! LOL! Just look for the 6′5″ 250 lb black man who’s b#tching about the pound-to-dollar exchange rate! He didn’t want to go because it’s almost 2 to 1, but his wife and daughter out-voted him. Now you know why Brad wants another boy…the women will out-vote him and Mad every time!
alero Says:
October 29th, 2006 at 5:36 pm
Benjamin Button starts filming November 6 according to movie extras posting on IMDB. So hopefully the family will be leaving India real soon.
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Alero - That’s just pre-production. Brad said he’d be back in NO in January to start shooting and check on the progress of the funding for his Green Global project.
Passing Through Says:
October 29th, 2006 at 6:53 pm
lol, I will definitely look out for your brother, but I seriously doubt I will see him, hey but you never know :); and your brother is definitely going to be bitching about the pound to the dollar, the first time I went to England I bitched about that my whole trip and even today I am still bitching about it :lol:, but I guess the good thing for me is that I will be staying with family, so I don’t have to worry about paying for hotel etc. I agree, the Joli-Pitts do need another boy to even out, otherwise poor Brad and Madd will be out voted all the time
trendy Says:
October 29th, 2006 at 5:59 pm
SIMPLY BRAD SITE- says filming of Benjamin Button does start in November but Brad will join them in December so he does get a little break after returning from India.
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Actually, I think SimplyBrad.com is wrong. Brad himself told People mag that he’d be back to NO in JANUARY 2007. That was in the article after their last trip to NO.
Thanks jjoy! The Jolie group was getting weird and gross! I hope everyone is doing well and those who are already members of the BAMZS group please post your videos! It’s strange to only see mine on there.
Alexanderina Says: October 29th, 2006 at 6:45 pm
“I think that they will take a mini-vacation after filming AMH ”
I sure hope they do, and Mickey too!. This trip to India has been stressful to the point that I bet they miss the american paps! lol. When they get back maybe he and she can slip away for some r & r. They seem to make sure they get mommy & daddy time in and I bet they need some mucho bad.
jpf
Passing Through - yeah, here is the scan
http://img404.imageshack.us/my.php?image=bpsept1802yd7.jpg
Original jpf: October 29th, 2006 at 7:12 pm
I think that they all will need a vacation after India, including Mickey, hey Mickey could come to San Diego and I can show him around :lol:, jk. And I agree they will definitely need some mommy and daddy time, just the two of them, some place nice and romantic :)
4Q’s, I have been looking for this page since it come out! I had pg 1, but not 2, thanks.
PT, thanks for the link.
jpf
Hi everyone! Finally working for me. Hope you are all getting used to the time change by now. Have a great night and happy dreams!
This is a video make by Preggy-Jolie from Bradforums, it is really beautiful
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsjdEPyG2xM
Alexanderina…LOL!
I’d go anywhere with the Mick. I’m telling you, I just look at him and feel safer. I read somewhere that he used to be Sandra Bullock’s security, and that Nicole Kidman is the one who suggested him to Angelina. I saw a photo of him from back when she was with BBT, and he has not changed one bit.
It would be nice for them to slip off to some tropical Island where they can just wear sarongs, sip cute drinks, walk along the beach, eat great food, make amazing love……sigh
jpf
Amaya Says:
October 29th, 2006 at 7:05 pm
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Thanks for creating that new group. LOL, foreal that group’s getting eccentric by day..
Alexanderina Says:
October 29th, 2006 at 7:19 pm
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sd?! I’ll treat them with my finest loompias (filipino eggrolls) and other filipino delicacies lol. Remember the news ’bout Angie and sin city2 = san diego comic con?! argh, it seems that sc2 and her ain’t happenin’ AT ALL. :cry: there goes my luck…
Original jpf Says:
October 29th, 2006 at 7:32 pm
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hey I read sometime ago that they (JP’s) might take a vacay in the caribbeans. Of course, I think the source was just bsing.
Original jpf : October 29th, 2006 at 7:32 pm
Mickey is the MAN, I adore he, he is like one of the Jolie-Pitts, and you cannot help but love a man that is protecting your favorite family. I did not know that he used to be Sandra Bullock’s security, I knew that he worked security for NK, well I am glad that he is with the JPs.
BTW: I just switched the channel to E! and they are showing Angelina’s true HW Story, but it almost finish
Original jpf : October 29th, 2006 at 7:32 pm
Mickey is the MAN, I adore him, he is like one of the Jolie-Pitts, and you cannot help but love a man that is protecting your favorite family. I did not know that he used to be Sandra Bullock’s security, I knew that he worked security for NK, well I am glad that he is with the JPs.
BTW: I just switched the channel to E! and they are showing Angelina’s true HW Story, but it almost finish
i think they are going to Cambodia after the AMH shoot. To set up the millinium village as well as for Brad to get to know his son’s birthplace…
sorry for the double post
angelah: October 29th, 2006 at 7:38 pm
Hey Angelah, I know I was looking forward to Sin City 2 coming to San Diego for the comic com, but I guess it is not to be, and Angelah I am sure they would have enjoy your loompias :)
angelah Says:
October 29th, 2006 at 7:41 pm
hey I read sometime ago that they (JP’s) might take a vacay in the caribbeans. Of course, I think the source was just bsing.
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I saw that too Angelah, it came from the trashy tab L&S, so anything that comes from that piece of crap, am not believing
4Q’s
If that doesn’t signal to the doubting how commited these two are to being a family I can’t imagine much else will. What a beautiful and emotional time that will be for both Angelina & Brad, but especially Angelina. The irony of her adopting Maddox with BBT who turned around and willingly gave up all claim to the child, and then you have this other man who’s told the world he couldn’t live without his adopted son and daughter. No wonder Angie looks at Brad like he hung the sun moon & stars.
jpf
Alexanderina: October 29th, 2006 at 7:50 pm
I don’t know for certain about the Sandra B thing, but for some reason that’s in my head, and I think it’s something I read one time so don’t quote me lol.
jpf
I don’t know if this article is posted
From the Magazine | Arts
The Power of Babel
Unraveling the fragile threads that connect us
By RICHARD SCHICKEL
SUBSCRIBE TO TIMEPRINTE-MAILMORE BY AUTHOR
Posted Sunday, Oct. 22, 2006
In Morocco a little peasant boy aims a rifle, newly acquired by his father, at a tourist bus and grievously wounds a woman dozing by one of its windows. In Tokyo an adolescent girl, puzzled and angry over her mother’s suicide (and a deaf-mute as well), bedevils her father and at the same time blatantly asserts her confused but flaming sexual needs. In San Diego a Mexican woman tends two Anglo children she deeply loves while their parents are on holiday, but when her own son needs her, she puts her charges in jeopardy. Unable to find someone to replace her, she takes them along to her son’s wedding with near calamitous results.
Babel is Babel indeed. Director Alejandro González Iñárritu and screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga are essentially up to the same trick they used brilliantly in Amores Perros, less so in 21 Grams–interweaving multiple stories about disparate individuals and eventually revealing their hidden connections. Since the characters are, in the present instance, operating on a global scale, some viewers will find Babel excitingly far-ranging. Others may find it merely far-fetched. Some will see the casting of Cate Blanchett as the wounded tourist and Brad Pitt as her husband as evidence that it aspires to be a major motion picture. Others will note the anonymity of the other players and see it as a lengthy, overambitious art-house entry. Those of us who think González Iñárritu is one of the movies’ larger youngish talents will perhaps be inclined to cut him a good deal of slack.
It is not important how, or even if, his three intercut stories become linked. Each of them is, in itself, a powerful tale of fairly ordinary people taken gently down innocent-seeming roads only to find themselves, at the end, in desperate and life-threatening circumstances.
The kid with the gun is playful and innocent; he is not trying to cause an international incident. The sex-crazed Japanese girl is a recognizably troubled adolescent, quite unaware of the largely hormonal firestorm raging within her. The Mexican au pair is a kindly and responsible woman, caught in conflict between the needs of her beloved charges and the call of a central event in her family’s life. Her crisis is the more powerful for the way it takes her, unaware of the gathering threat, to the brink of madness and death. It is a measure of González Iñárritu’s humanity that his protagonists are not all victims of their bad decisions. It is a measure of his potent skills as a director that he hammers home his melodrama with relentless ferocity.
The actors–including his two big stars–are all wonderfully real, seemingly as surprised by the depths and dangers of their circumstances and emotions as we are. Babel is a movie that leaves you feeling limp and wrung out, but mysteriously moved by its vivid human encounters with the hot, tightly wired, chancy and coincidental world, ever capable of terrorizing us when we least expect it.
Hey Briese, are you log in?
India has free press, subject only to the laws of libel, slander and national security - same as in the US.
No offence to any Indians readers here but overall, I would not give Indian-English papers much more then a pass grade. Of course, I was there more then 6 years ago so things may have chanaged. However, when I was visiting regularly, I noticed that for a nation of more then 400 million fluent english readers, it does not have truly great newspapers like The Times, The Guardian in the UK or Washington Post or International Herald Tribune. I notice that analysis of the news was not particularly good.
Even the good papers seem to have a bit of a USA Today feel about them - BUT POORER QUALITY. Also, one of the things I found when reading the Indian English press was the varying qualities within the paper. What I mean is, you can OK (but slightly sensationalistic) reporting on the politics or the economy but really trashy reporting on other things. However, reporting on cricket is always good quality.
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