5 bottles of wine and a homemade bong later it worked, and Pitt was very puzzled to find himself starring in Tarentino’s latest movie.
doesn't spend time away from
Angelina Jolie and their six children for just any project.
"As I get older, it's about the company you keep because you're away from your family," he said at the first press conference for his new film,
Inglourious Basterds, in Cannes, France, Wednesday. "Sometimes for months."
WATCH BRAD PITT ON THE TODAY SHOW THIS MORNING.
The star -- currently at the Cannes Film Festival along with Jolie -- praised director Quentin Tarantino as he sat alongside him and costars Mike Myers and Diane Kruger.
"He had me at hello," Pitt, 45, joked.
Tarantino replied: "I had him at bonjour."
See photos of Brad Pitt through the years.
Pitt, who repeatedly showed off his own French speaking skills -- saying, "je t'aime," which means "I love you," several times -- as he opened up about his first meeting with Tarantino.
"We went out together... I got up the next morning and saw, like, five empty bottles on the floor and some sort of smoking device on the floor," he said, laughing. "Then, somehow, six weeks later I was doing the film."
See what Angelina wore to Cannes last year.
He said the movie, which follows Pitt as a lieutenant of a group of Jewish-American soldiers fighting Nazis during World War II, was "something new" for him.
"I wish all films could be made this way," he said. "It's definitely outrageous, which I was game for!"
The actor, wearing a cream Tom Ford suit and ascot, also spoke to
Today's Ann Curry about how he's satisfied with his life.
Find out what Brad Pitt was up to last year.
"Angie's been working, and I've got to be home a lot with the kids," he said. "Let me be the cliche -- it's really rewarding."
Pitt, who says "I'm right in the zone" and that "it's one of the most on track" times of his life, isn't quite sure where he's heading.
"I really don't know what's next... It's still been about discovery, and finding new things and new things of interest," he said. "The kids are certainly responsible for that."
