Screenhead

I haven’t seen the first two installments of the crime caper ‘Oceans 11′ series, nor have I seen the 1960’s original either. Something told me to head to the theater and catch the newest that has been getting solid reviews across the board in the press. I was pleased that I decided I made the trip.

The movie was a nice escapists summer flick that any fan of Viva Las Vegas would enjoy. Stars Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Al Pacinio, Matt Damon , and more Hollywood regulars all played off each others talents in the film directed by Steven Soderbergh.

Here is the basic premise: Al Pacinio plays corrupt casino owner Willie Bank. He forces out an old time casino owner that happens to be friends with Danny Ocean’s (George Clooney) and his crew who are all master criminals. Along the way Ocean and the boys have many obstacles to overcome to cheat Bank’s casino out of business. Laughs, gasps, and all out fun is what you should expect if you plan on heading to theater to catch the film.

Click on after the break to read an exclusive interview that Entertainment Weekly sent along. The magazine comes out nationwide on Monday on newstands.

EW sat down with Brad first while waiting for his pal George to arrive. “Sorry about this,” Pitt says, contorting his body into a mess of angles and elbows to hide behind a low wall and light up a cigarette. “Actually, I’m less worried about the paparazzi catching me than someone, ahem, who doesn’t know I still smoke once in a while.” Hopefully Angie’s a forgiving woman.

When George Clooney arrives for the interview a few minutes late he yells to Pitt, “You bastard!”

Pitt: What?

Clooney: I did all these interviews right after you. And all the reporters told me, “Brad said you did the movie for the money!”

Pitt: [Laughs] I did. Believe I said it was all for the cash.

Clooney: Brutal! [Laughs] How ya doin’?

Entertainment Weekly: Good. Thanks. So I’ve heard that you guys call this movie Ocean’s Thirteen: The One We Should Have Made Last Time.

Pitt: Credit where credit is due. That was [director] Steven Soderbergh’s line.

Clooney: Steven actually wanted to bill it that way, but I don’t think the studio was so thrilled with that. It f—s up the boxed set.

EW: But it does get to a legitimate point, which was that people weren’t so fond of Ocean’s Twelve. Other than for money, why make another one?

Clooney: You know, more than anything we wanted another crack. We wanted to go out on a stronger note—and we felt like we had a great way to do it, which was revenge.

Pitt: I thought you’re a pacifist, George.

Clooney: Well, the movie really is a cry for peace.

EW: Did you know the bad reviews were coming for Twelve?

Clooney: [Laughs] No! I thought we did good, and I’m living in my own…

Pitt: …world of delusions.

Clooney: That was the funniest part. All of a sudden we started getting bad reviews and we were like, “Really?”

Pitt: Totally surprised.

Clooney: I had the same thing happen on The Good German. I thought it was really good and we got slaughtered. It’s the worst-reviewed movie that Steven or I have ever been involved in. Steven was like, “I don’t get it.”

Pitt: That’s why you have to do what I do. Don’t read ‘em. I know how I feel about the movies and that’s good enough for me.

EW: I noticed you ditched Julia Roberts and Catherine Zeta-Jones. You clearly thought the girls were a problem.

Clooney: Tell me about it. But the thing is, it’s not just that they were a problem on screen. On set they were brutal. You know them, right?

EW: Oh, sure. We hang out all the time.

Clooney: So you know why we got rid of them.

EW: But you added Ellen Barkin and Al Pacino.

Pitt: Well, Pacino just gave us a little respectability, you know? Something that we needed.

Clooney: And he learned a lot from us. He was there to learn. I felt that sometimes you’d look at him and he’d just look up at you with puppy-dog eyes, like, “Thank you. Seriously.”

The two go on to discuss their relationship with each other and with their families.

Pitt: We have good fun together. We all know each other pretty well now and know each other’s families.

Clooney: It’s the funniest thing, I have to say: Since Eleven, when we started, all the guys have gotten married, had kids, and have whole families. This time there were babies everywhere. We’d be on the set in L.A. and I just sit in the middle of the whole thing like an old man.

Pitt: He looks like he’s trying to decipher a foreign language.

Clooney: It’s true! I’m like, What the hell are these little things?

EW: Do you ever look at each other and go, Hell, I wish I was in the Italian villa instead of changing diapers? Or: Man, I wish I had a couple of those rug rats?

Pitt: No.

Clooney: No.

Pitt: But I tell ya what, kids are a lot of hard work.

Clooney: It’s one of those difficult things [when you’re famous].

EW: Because of the endless scrutiny?

Clooney: Yeah. No one wants to hear you complain, because it sounds like you’re whining. But I think he and Angie have a tougher time living their lives, just going out to see the city with the kids. I mean, look out there, all the boats with the cameras. I was walking around on the beach yesterday and I just thought to myself, Where’s Brad? And all of a sudden you see the cameras all go WHOOOOSSSHH and I was like, Oh, here he comes! I watch that and think, Wow. I know it’s not all that fun for me, and it seems exponentially harder for him.

So how do they escape the paparazzi?

Clooney: Motorcycles are the great equalizer. You put on a helmet and they can’t see you.

Pitt: Just keep moving. That’s the key.

Clooney: You stop, you die. Lobbies of hotels and places like that are the worst. You have to just keep moving to the elevator, because you have to get the elevator door to close.

EW asked how the two keep the constant public scrutiny from ruining their day to day lives.

Clooney: You adjust your life, certainly. There are certain things you don’t do, there are certain places you don’t go, but then at some point you have to go out. You have to live, you know?

Pitt: So you will see George laid out on the rocks in a Speedo later.

Clooney: I don’t want to see anyone in a Speedo. Especially 70-year-old men. [Gestures to the beach, which is full of 70-year-old men in Speedos] You learn a lot about the aging process watching that. [Laughs]

EW: Clearly the obsession with celebrity is a little out of control. From where I sit, it looks like you’re the meat being thrown to the lions.

Clooney: Right. Well, we are always going to be that society that slows down to look at the car wreck on the side of the road. I think we’re just in one of those places right now, and it seems to be focused on younger kids. Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan and people like that. They’ll get through it, but I wouldn’t want to be growing up around that. If I were as famous as some of those kids who are on the magazines right now at 21 years old, I’d be shooting crack under my eyeball.

Pitt: But being that it is our nature, you have to focus on other, more important issues too, because those [car wreck] tendencies can be very disruptive and aren’t a good guide on how to live your life.

Clooney: No, it’s a terrible guide.

EW: So how do you get people to focus on the issues that matter to you—and manage to make a difference—without just distracting from the cuase?

Clooney: It’s interesting. Brad did it first and best—he went to Africa. Was it the Diane Sawyer show?

Pitt: It was.

Clooney: You made this really interesting decision where you said, “The cameras are going to follow me, so I’m going to go here. And wherever the cameras follow me they’re going to see this.” It was really smart. And I thought, Wow, here’s a way to take this insatiable appetite and say, “If you’re going to take these photographs and follow us around, fair enough. But you’re also going to have to go where it will provoke some thought about what else is going on in the world.” It was a really smart play. And all of us have been taking a cue from that.

Pitt: The idea was: We can’t get out of the spotlight and they can’t get in the spotlight, so let’s equal that out a little bit. (Cover Story, Page 30)

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