As part of Virgin Mobile’s ‘Fair Go Bro’ campaign, Pedestrian had the chance to chat with the lesser known Pitt and star in his own right, Doug Pitt. Recently in the country to promote the campaign, Doug spoke to us about being in front of the camera for the first time, the perks associated with being a Pitt and the struggles he faces in buying the perfect gift for the man who has everything.
Very nice to meet you Doug. First up, have you ever been to Australia before? No, first time. Absolutely loving it.
What have you gotten up to since you arrived? You know, just making our way around Sydney. I spent some time on the harbor, I’ve got my tourist hat on at the same time and we’re having a good time.
Awesome. I guess what we wanted to know is what made you want to do this campaign? So someone pitched it to you, what were your initial thoughts and what was it about it that made you go “You know what? That’s something that I want to do.” Knowing it was Virgin, helped sell me. I’m a Richard Branson fan and as a business guy I was intruiged. These guys are edgy and they’re on their game so I saw the creative part of it and, I simply thought it was funny. It was a little bit outside of my comfort zone so we talked back and forth for probably a good month. But I thought it was very creative and funny and I thought we could have some fun with this and still help bring light to some of our philanthropic projects, you know. Why not? So Virgin stepped up to help out finanicially with some of my projects as well and obviously have given us a soapbox to talk about it so we said yes, and I’m really glad we did. It’s been fun.
The campaign is Australian obviously but got quite a bit of play in the media in America. Has it changed the way that people recognize you back home? Yeah, actually that kind of took me off guard. I’m thrilled by the campaign and Virgin Mobile and the success of it but I wasn’t really expecting that many people in The States to see it. Obviously friends and family are making good sport of it, you know, it was designed to be fun and tongue-in-cheek. I’m glad its market and people have received it that way. It’s funny, we thought it was funny.
So have you noticed a marked increase in people recognizing you? Oh a little bit. In The States it’s a little different. They know who I am and obviously who I’m related to so it’s a little different but it’s been a good experience down here. The Australian people have been so generous and I appreciate their sense of humour too and ability to enjoy the campaign and laugh along with it.
Have you had people in Australia recognizing you from the campaign?
It’s happened a couple of times since I’ve been here, yeah. We were walking by a bakery yesterday and the guy behind the counter yelled out as we were walking down the sidewalk so we went in and just had a quick hello. It’s nice. He was very kind and respectful and just wanted to say “Hey, I think your thing’s funny” and I appreciate that.
Awesome. What does your brother think about the campaign?
Oh, he thought it was really hilarious. Yeah he did (laughing).
And did he give you any acting advice? You do a really great job of that deadpan tone which makes the ad so funny. OH I appreciate that. No he didn’t, but I had to call him afterwards to just say “Man, props to you. That’s hard!” It’s intimidating. The lights are on, they’re yelling action and everybody in the room is kinda doing their job and they’re expecting you to do one too, something that you don’t normally do. It’s a little intimidating at first but they were great. They helped put me at ease and the nice thing about it is that after take two, take three and later we figured it all out. It was a good experience. It’s fun but very stressful.
What’s something that you’re better at doing than your brother? Oh heck I don’t know! Just trying to think…Umm I’ll just pass on that one.
Ok, well what is the best thing about being Brad Pitt’s brother? Oh, obviously getting to do fun stuff like this. I mean, I obviously wouldn’t be here without that connection so there’s definitely a lot of great things like that. Getting the ability to travel and it’s no secret as a business guy obviously that the connection helps get you in the room with people. You’ve gotta keep yourself there, but it does open doors into the philanthropic world. The connection works well for raising money and obviously that’s perpetually what we have to do, so there’s several good things.
What’s the worst thing? Or the most annoying thing? When the paparazzi cross a line. I’ve got kids and family and obviously you’re protective of your family and we’ve got the protective parent thing going on and sometimes they’re a little overzealous and cross the line. That part’s not very fun and you’ve got to hit that head on and luckily that doesn’t rear its head very often but it has over the years and I’d say that’s the part that kind of sucks the fun out of it.
So what do you buy as presents for someone like Brad? What’s your train of thought when it’s Christmas time? Funny you would ask, we almost dread birthdays and Christmas because what do you buy that guy? It’s really tough so I just try to find something that’s off the beaten path, something that I know he hasn’t seen before. It can be a stretch. It’s tough.
Doug, thank you so much for your time mate. No problems, happy to do it. Thanks man.
