Brad Pitt Says Retirement Still a Long Way Off

Actor Brad Pitt poses on the red carpet before the screening of "Bullet Train" in Berlin, Germany, July 19, 2022. (Reuters)
Actor Brad Pitt poses on the red carpet before the screening of "Bullet Train" in Berlin, Germany, July 19, 2022. (Reuters)
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Brad Pitt Says Retirement Still a Long Way Off

Actor Brad Pitt poses on the red carpet before the screening of "Bullet Train" in Berlin, Germany, July 19, 2022. (Reuters)
Actor Brad Pitt poses on the red carpet before the screening of "Bullet Train" in Berlin, Germany, July 19, 2022. (Reuters)

Brad Pitt scotched talk of imminent retirement as he traveled to Paris for the premiere of his Jackie Chan-inspired action caper "Bullet Train".

The 58-year-old had worried fans that his acting days may be numbered after a GQ interview last month in which he said he was in the "last semester" of his career.

But Pitt told AFP: "I'm not getting out by any means.

"It seems that might have been taken as a statement of retirement. That's not what I was saying," he said.

"I'm over that hump of middle age and so I'm looking at that last leg... how do I want to spend that time? At my age, you've made enough mistakes... now there's a comfort in applying that kind of wisdom."

"Bullet Train", which is being released around the world over the next two weeks, sees Pitt trying something new in an action comedy from the director of "John Wick", David Leitch.

Pitt plays a reluctant hit-man fighting off rivals on a Japanese train.

"It's much more fun than the regular punch-up. It's infused with humor and character," he said.

"I can't say enough about Jackie Chan and what he's done, and to be in that arena, even close to that, is something I hadn't done before."

Pitt will next be seen in "Babylon" about Hollywood's golden age, directed by Damien Chazelle ("La La Land").

That will partner him again with Margot Robbie -- the pair starred in Quentin Tarantino's "Once upon a Time in Hollywood", which won Pitt an Oscar in 2020.

But Pitt said he takes particular enjoyment from production duties with his company Plan B.

The company has three best picture Oscar winners to its name -- "The Departed", "Twelve Years a Slave" and "Moonlight" -- and will soon release the hotly tipped "Blonde" about Marilyn Monroe.

"I really like what we've been able to do on the producing end. You get to be part of stories, foster new talent," he said.

Unlike other major movie stars such as Tom Cruise, Pitt is not as wedded to the nostalgia of movie theaters.

"I like the dichotomy, the streamer as well as the theater experience, because films were getting so expensive to do and to market that it was either big tent-pole movies or very small intimate movies and there was no room for anythings in-between. Streamers have opened it up for more voices," he said.

Nonetheless, Pitt said he had recently loved going to watch "Elvis" in a cinema.

"I'm a big fan of Austin Butler, I think he's going to do great work," said Pitt of the film's star.

"It was so much fun to be there again. There's a place for both."



Jingle Jangle: Draft Lyrics to ‘Mr. Tambourine Man’ Sell for $508K at US Auction 

An image released by Julien's Auctions shows musician Bob Dylan's lyrics for various famed songs are show in this undated image. (Julien's Auctions via AP)
An image released by Julien's Auctions shows musician Bob Dylan's lyrics for various famed songs are show in this undated image. (Julien's Auctions via AP)
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Jingle Jangle: Draft Lyrics to ‘Mr. Tambourine Man’ Sell for $508K at US Auction 

An image released by Julien's Auctions shows musician Bob Dylan's lyrics for various famed songs are show in this undated image. (Julien's Auctions via AP)
An image released by Julien's Auctions shows musician Bob Dylan's lyrics for various famed songs are show in this undated image. (Julien's Auctions via AP)

Draft lyrics to Bob Dylan’s song “Mr. Tambourine Man” went for over a half-million dollars as part of a weekend sale of dozens of items related to the iconic American singer-songwriter.

About 60 Dylan items — including photos, music sheets, his guitar, pencil drawings and an oil painting composed by the Nobel Prize for literature winner — were sold on Saturday in Nashville, Tennessee, through Julien’s Auctions.

The items generated nearly $1.5 million in sales overall through in-person and online bidding, the auction house said. Julien's said 50 of the items, including the lyrics that received the highest sale price, came from the personal collection of late music journalist Al Aronowitz.

The typewritten lyrics, which covered three drafts of the 1965 song, were written on two sheets of yellow paper, with Dylan’s annotation on the third draft.

Dylan wrote the original draft lyrics in the journalist's New Jersey home, according to Julien’s, citing a 1973 newspaper article by Aronowitz.

Dylan sat “with my portable typewriter at my white formica breakfast bar in a swirl of chain-lit cigarette smoke, his bony, long-nailed fingers tapping the words out” on copy paper, Aronowitz was quoted as writing.

The third draft, while close to the final version, still had significant variations from the final lyrics, the auction house said on its website.

The song appeared as the lead track on the acoustic side of his 1965 “Bringing It All Back Home” album and was the first Dylan composition to reach No. 1 in the United States and the United Kingdom, Julien’s said.

Other high-selling items Saturday included a 1968 Dylan-signed oil-on-canvas painting for $260,000 and a custom 1983 Fender guitar that he owned and played for $225,000.

Dylan, now 83, is garnering attention with last month's release of the movie “A Complete Unknown," which focuses on his rise to stardom in the early 1960s. Dylan is played by Timothée Chalamet, who has worked for several years on the role, which involves singing and playing guitar.