During his interview on the Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend podcast, Don Cheadle shared the Ocean’s Twelve cast’s secret weapon for avoiding paparazzi. According to the two Grammy Award-winning actor, Brad Pitt was their decoy to fend the press off.
“When we were in Italy, where we shot the second one, we had one full floor of a hotel. We kinda had to, because, I mean, paparazzi is an Italian word,” Cheadle said. “If the paparazzi would come, I’d be with George or Matt or something, and we’d go, ‘Look, there’s Brad!’ and they’d just all —” Cheadle continued before making a ‘whoosh!’ gesture. “‘Is that Brad?!'”
When Ocean’s Twelve was being marketed in the film world, Brad Pitt’s notoriety was hard to ignore, Cheadle stated.
“I can still pretty much just go around,” he said. “I don’t really get bothered that much. Somebody will say something, or I’ll know somebody will recognize me, but for the most part, I am low-key — I don’t think Brad can be…. He can’t go anywhere.”
Cheadle continued elaborating on the price of fame: “It’s hard,” he expressed. “People are like, ‘Well, what did you expect?’ They think that’s the contract: ‘I should get to walk up to you and put my hat on your head and go take a picture. What’s wrong? I paid for this.’ Well no. I did that thing, and you paid for that thing, and we shook hands, and now I’m just a person out here, too.”
Ocean’s Twelve is the predecessor to the 2001 movie Ocean’s Eleven. It stars Cheadle, Pitt, George Clooney, Matt Damon, and more.
