For the first time in 10 years, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are gracing the screen together in "By the Sea," a story about a couple who take a trip to France to try and salvage their troubled marriage, written and directed by Jolie.
But unlike their last on-screen appearance, this film is not an action-packed rom-com about a husband and wife's secret assassin-lives.
"'Mr. and Mrs. Smith' this is not," Pitt said in V Magazine’s Winter Issue (Issue 98), which he covers. "'By the Sea' deals with that period when the honeymoon is well over and the couple is faced with the banality of every day and the pains of the unplanned. There are no Hallmark cards that define the next chapter, or the value of a history together. So who are you?"
Pitt, who poses shirtless for a photo shoot by by Inez and Vinoodh in the issue, opens up about taking direction from his "sexy" wife, and how the concept of them working together again finally played out.
"The plan was to make something together, with complete autonomy, in the footsteps of Gena [Rowlands] and John [Cassavetes] -- and keep it a family affair. We, by our own admission, were overdue. If I'm going to work, I want to work with my wife," Pitt gushed, saying that Jolie is an incredible director. "[It's] surprising how much I enjoy the direction of my wife. She's decisive, incredibly intuitive, knife-sharp, and might I say, sexy at her post. I trust her with my life."
As for his character in the film, Pitt admitted, "I play a good drunk because I've been a good drunk," but really, all he wanted was to do justice to his wife's screenplay.
"Naturally I didn't want to fail Angie's ideas ... her words ... but really I had absolute faith we'd figure it out," he said.
The new issue of V Magazine hits newsstands Nov. 12 and "By the Sea" hits theaters Nov. 13.
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