Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are parents of three biological and three adopted children. For Pitt, who was childless into his 40s after his marriage with Jennifer Aniston broke up, it all happened in just a few years.
"I know it seems extreme from the outside, but I've always kind of operated this way. When I know, I know, and why mess around?" Pitt, 47, said in an interview. "I had a friend who had a big family when I was a kid. I just loved the chaos around the breakfast table and the fighting and the ribbing, and the mom making pancakes for everyone or the dad making pancakes.
"And I just decided then if I was ever going to do it - this left some indelible mark on me - if I was ever going to do it, that's the way I was going to do it."Angelina adopted son Maddox, now nine, from an orphanage in Cambodia in 2002. She and Pitt adopted daughter Zahara, now five, from Ethiopia in 2005 and then in 2007, they adopted Pax, now seven, from Vietnam. She also gave birth to daughter Shiloh in 2006 and twins Vivienne and Knox in 2008.
The whole Pitt-Jolie clan headed to Cannes this week to support the star as he promoted his new film The Tree of Life, in which he plays a father of three in a drama that deals with the biggest of questions about our place in the cosmos.
Pitt also said he and Jolie are looking to reunite on screen. "We're not ones to repeat ourselves, but we'd like to, because right now, we're hopscotching with films so one can be with the kids and one's free to work," Pitt said.
"And why aren't we doing them together? Why aren't we doing everything together?" Pitt said he settles on film roles differently now. "I think my focus before was more irreverence, by nature," Pitt said.
"I'm a dad now. It's more important to me that if I'm going to do the film, there's something I can bring to it, it's not generic. And most of all, I'm painfully aware that my kids are going to see these when they're older, and I want them to understand something about their dad, and I want them to be proud of their dad."
And maybe remember some chaos around the breakfast table, said Pitt, who cooks pancakes for his kids. "Breakfast is pretty much my speciality," Pitt said. "And barbecue."