Brad Pitt: “If I’m Going To Work, I Want To Work With My Wife”

In case you were at all curious to hear Brad Pitt's feelings on working under the direction of Angelina Jolie in By the Sea, he's very frank on the subject in the upcoming issue of V Magazine #98. "She's decisive, incredibly intuitive, knife-sharp, and might I say, sexy at her post," said the actor, who was captured on camera by famed photography duo Inez and Vinoodh. "I trust her with my life." This comment — among several others Pitt made to the mag — are exactly the sorts of things we're all secretly hoping a partner is saying behind our backs. He also likened their working relationship on the movie (and the movie itself) to the work of marriage, delving into what it really takes to survive after the newlywed glow fades and you have to resume real life again.

"Mr. and Mrs. Smith this is not," he explained. (The trailer may have already tipped us off to that, but thanks for the heads up, Brad.) "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." In other words: The tough stuff that forces you to show your partner — and yourself — what you're made of. "There are no Hallmark cards that define the next chapter, or the value of a history together. So who are you?" he added. As for the decision to embark on this sort of film together, Brad was honest that it was a long time coming. "The plan was to make something together, with complete autonomy," he explained, "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." For more from Pitt on By the Sea and much more, check out V Magazine's winter 2015/16 issue, on stands November 12.