Pitt: 'I disturbed Angelina I think'
Angelina Jolie was surprised by the odd character husband Brad Pitt plays in CIA comedy Burn After Reading.
He's a doltish gym employee with upswept hair. "I don't know where he came from, I'm somewhat disturbed by it all," he says. "Certainly Angelina's disturbed by it, I think."
Pitt joins Frances McDormand and George Clooney in a tale about the increasing power of hi-tech surveillance.
Not known for comedies Pitt isn't sure why he feels comfortable going for laughs - "I'm not sure I can articulate it, I'm groping my way through this.
"As for comedies, I've felt like I've been doing comedies for years," says the Babel and Oceans 13 star. Maybe they weren't so funny."
This is his first time working with the Coens, and he was disappointed to be playing a fool, deadpans the actor.
"I've been knocking on their door for a few years so I was really happy that they called. Then I read the piece and I was a little upset at them."
And one of the most appealing things about doing a film for the efficient Coen brothers? "Short days."
He also liked not having to play the heroic lead. "The leading man role is the guy who has the answers and can figure things out.
"That's pretty good for the ego sometimes. But it's much more fun to play the guy who makes the wrong choices and has to deal with it."
Doing comedy is no different from dramatic acting he maintains. "You approach them all in the same way. You just try to understand their view of the world."
If there is a theme to his work it's American characters, he says.
"I've found America really really interesting in this last decade."
In his next film he works again with his co-star Tilda Swinton, in The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button.
"It's a bit of a love letter to New Orleans and it's a bit of a love letter to family," he explains. "To the people who may dance in your life along the way." Another film planned is Quentin Tarantino's Inglorious B******s.