Brad Pitt is on the cover of W Magazine February 2009 A-List issue.  He requested that legendary photographer Chuck Close shoot the cover photo and feature article photos.  See video and article excerpts here.

“You can’t be the fair-haired young boy forever,” says Close, known for his superdetailed portraits that reveal every skin flaw. “Maybe a photograph of him with his crow’s-feet and furrowed brow is good for him.” (W Magazine: A-List: Brad Pitt)

Brad Pitt discussed a range of topics  (even responding to remarks from Jenifer Anniston)  in the feature article and interview by Kevin West.  He talked about his challenging role as the title character in the Oscar buzzed, critically acclaimed movie The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, directed by David Fincher and based on the F. Scott Fitzgerald story of the same title.  Cate Blanchett stars as his lifelong soulmate in the unusual story which chronicles the life of a man who is born elderly and ages backwards and begins in 1918 and ends in 2005 with Hurricane Katrina.

He recalls worrying that the central love story between his character and Blanchett’s might become “the ballad of codependency,” a tortured romance that he didn’t care to step into. In the end, however, after hashing out the project with Fincher and screenwriter Eric Roth, he viewed it as a more adult romance, in which both parties accept the consequences of their decisions.

“It’s not a classic love story in the sense of ‘And they live happily ever after,’” Pitt explains. “It’s two individuals who want to be with the other one instead of needing the other one to complete them. It was very important to us that each one was responsible for their choices.”

Brad Pitt who famously shot the W Magazine November 2008 Angelina Jolie breastfeeding photos and cover photo also spoke about his family life and the Jennifer-Brad-Angelina triangle which has been a persistent media topic.

In November Jennifer Aniston told a journalist that an earlier comment from Jolie—that she and Pitt fell in love on the set of Mr. & Mrs. Smith, and so the film “might mean something more than we’d earlier allowed ourselves to believe”—was “uncool,” because Aniston and Pitt were still married during filming. “Listen, man, Jen is a sweetheart,” Pitt says, as if to settle this thing once and for all. “I think she got dragged into that one, and then there’s a second round to all of that Angie versus Jen. It’s so created.” Of his current relationship with Aniston, he says, “We still check in with each other. She was a big part of my life, and me hers. I don’t see how there cannot be [that]. That’s life, man. That’s life.” [...]

“What people don’t understand is that we filmed [Mr. & Mrs. Smith] for a year,” he explains. “We were still filming after Jen and I split up. Even then it doesn’t mean that there was some kind of dastardly affair. There wasn’t. I’m very proud of the way that it was handled. It was respectful. [The film] will mean something to our kids. It will, that’s all.”

Regarding witnessing President-elect Barack Obama’s historic election night victory speech in Grant Park, Chicago.

“It was just total jubilation,” recalls Pitt, animated by the memory. “It was the best rock concert that I’ve ever been to. Really. I could just feel it in the air. All the boulevards were closed afterward, and so we walked a half hour to the hotel. Everyone was just on a high.” Asked how he was able to walk undisturbed through the crowded streets (accompanied by Benjamin Button director David Fincher, one of the film’s makeup artists and Pitt’s assistant), the actor replies in an aw-shucks manner that evokes his small-town Missouri upbringing, “Man, nobody cared about us at that moment.”

Source: W Magazine: Brad Pitt Celebrities

Photo credit: Chuck Close/W Magazine  Cover image: Mark Pasetsky’s CoverAwards

Here is the Brad Pitt Today Show interview December 2, 2008 in which he discussed his Make It Right Foundation which helps families affected by Hurricane Katrina, his family, and the movie The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

See also:

• The Curious Case of Benjamin Button Trailer video

Related posts:

• Angelina Jolie W Magazine Cover, Photos November 2008
• Cate Blanchett Vanity Fair February 2009 Cover, Photos

Brad Pitt W Magazine February 2009 Cover, Photos by Chuck Close pics pictures