Proudest career moment yet? In a new interview with TODAY anchor at large Ann Curry, airing Wednesday, Oct. 16, Brad Pitt discusses his latest film, 12 Years of Slave, and explains why the role is so important to him.
12 Years a Slave tells the true story of Solomon Northup, a free black man from upstate New York who is abducted and sold into slavery. Pitt, who is also a producer of the film, plays Bass, a Canadian who works on the plantation where Northup is sent.
Despite having a smaller role in the already widely acclaimed Steve McQueen-directed film, Pitt, 49, tells Curry, "It's why I got into film in the first place." He adds, "It's one of those few films that cuts to the base of our humanity."
The R-rated film is so important to Pitt that he says he would even allow his oldest child, Maddox, 12, to watch it.
"Maybe my eldest I would, right now," he said of his six children — Maddox, Pax, 9, Zahara, 8, Shiloh, 7, and Vivienne and Knox, 5 — with fiancee Angelina Jolie. "I'd rather for the others to get a little bit older and understand the dynamics of the world a little more." (In June, Pitt revealed that son Maddox was making his film debut in his PG-13-rated zombie movie, World War Z. "He gets shot in the head . . . multiple times. But he gets double tapped," Pitt said, adding, "I don't know what that says about me as a parent.")
And as his children get older, so does Pitt. Celebrating his 50th birthday in December, the actor says he has "no complaints" and he hasn't "minded a bit."
Pitt's full interview with Curry airs on TODAY Oct. 16.
