Okay, as it turns out, Esquire has not released their full Brad Pitt cover story yet. They only released an excerpt plus Tom Junod’s post-interview thoughts on Brad and Angelina’s relationship after she announced her news about the mastectomy (which I covered earlier today). Esquire did release their full cover shoot by photographer Max Vadukul – you can see the slideshow here. It’s nice. It’s black-and-white and there are some lovely photos of Brad. Here are some highlights from the interview:

He forgets people’s faces and names all the time: “So many people hate me because they think I’m disrespecting them,” he says. “So I swear to God, I took one year where I just said, This year, I’m just going to cop to it and say to people, ‘Okay, where did we meet?’ But it just got worse. People were more offended. Every now and then, someone will give me context, and I’ll say, ‘Thank you for helping me.’ But I piss more people off. You get this thing, like, ‘You’re being egotistical. You’re being conceited.’ But it’s a mystery to me, man. I can’t grasp a face and yet I come from such a design/aesthetic point of view. I am going to get it tested.” It’s gotten to the point where he doesn’t even like going out — “that’s why I stay at home” — but he’s also a public person, the center of crowds. “You meet so many damned people,” he says. “And then you meet ‘em again.”

On his family making him happy: “I have very few friends. I have a handful of close friends and I have my family and I haven’t known life to be any happier. I’m making things. I just haven’t known life to be any happier.”

On changing the direction of his life: “I’d get so far and then want to do something else. I mean, I’m two credits short of graduating college. Two credits. All I had to do was write a paper. What kind of guy is that? That guy scares me – the guy who always leaves a little on his plate. For a long time I thought I did too much damage – drug damage. I was a bit of a drifter. A guy who felt he grew up in something of a vacuum and wanted to see things, wanted to be inspired. I followed that other thing. I spent years f–king off. But then I got burnt out and felt that I was wasting my opportunity. It was a conscious change. This was about a decade ago. It was an epiphany – a decision not to squander my opportunities. It was a feeling of get up. Because otherwise, what’s the point?”

On missing his kids when they’re not around: “I always thought that if I wanted to do a family, I wanted to do it big. I wanted there to be chaos in the house… there’s constant chatter in our house, whether it’s giggling or screaming or crying or banging. I love it. I love it. I love it. I hate it when they’re gone. I hate it. Maybe it’s nice to be in a hotel room for a day – ‘Oh, nice, I can finally read a paper.’ But then, by the next day, I miss that cacophony, all that life.”

[From Esquire & JJ]

“I just haven’t known life to be any happier.” I think that could be taken one of two ways. One, take it at face value and just think that this Brad’s backwards way of saying that this is the happiest he’s ever been. Two, chose to read more into it and think that in a life full of BS, pain and angst, Brad has carved out something that he likes and this is “the best” he thinks he’s ever going to get. I don’t know why Brad speaks in riddles about his family sometimes, but I suspect it’s just because his brain is a tangle of marijuana and wine and not because he’s so terribly unhappy. He is happy. I think.

Also, that condition where you can’t remember someone’s face/name…? That’s a real thing. I saw a talk show episode about it. Like, people with prosopagnosia don’t even recognize their children. They were shown a photo of President Obama and they asked, “Um, Tiger Woods?” Brad doesn’t have that condition. He just has a terrible memory.

Photos courtesy of Max Vadukul /Esquire.

Brad Pitt has spoken in an interview about his partner Angelina Jolie‘s decision to go public with her double mastectomy surgery, which she wrote about earlier in the week in an op-ed piece.

“I’m quite emotional about it, of course,” the 49-year-old World War Z star told USA Today. “She could have stayed absolutely private about it and I don’t think anyone would have been none the wiser with such good results. But it was really important to her to share the story and that others would understand it doesn’t have to be a scary thing. In fact, it can be an empowering thing, and something that makes you stronger and us stronger.”

Brad added that during the process, Angelina traveled to the Congo, London, and New York. “This was during Stage 2 [when the double mastectomy was performed],” he said. “Literally it was just weeks after she’d had truly major surgery.”

He also chatted about how he and Angie‘s children, Maddox, 11, Pax, 9, Zahara, 8, Shiloh, 6, and twins Knox and Vivienne, 4, dealt with the process. “We set up our own little post-op recovery that became pretty fun. You make an adventure out of it.”

After Angelina Jolie''s candid revelation in the New York Times on Tuesday (May 14) that she underwent a double mastectomy, friends and family are coming out in droves to support her decision.

Speaking to Gossip Cop, the "Tomb Raider" star''s father Jon Voight said his "love and admiration for her can never be measured in words" and her story "will be an inspiration to all women who are vulnerable" to breast cancer.

Though they may have had their differences, the 74-year-old actor says he spoke to his daughter this morning and she''s doing "terrific."

On the other side, Brad Pitt''s mom Jane praised her son''s partner, saying, "We’re so very proud of Angie, this means so much to our family especially our grandchildren. We love her dearly.”

After having lost their mother to the disease, Angelina''s brother James Haven gushed on Tuesday, "My sister, like our mother, always put her children first. I am so grateful to be her brother."

“Having witnessed this decision firsthand, I find Angie’s choice, as well as so many others like her, absolutely heroic. I thank our medicalteam for their care and focus. All I want for is for her to have a long and healthy life, with myself and our children. This is a happy day for our family.”

- Brad Pitt on his partner Angelina Jolie‘s decision to go public with the double-mastectomy procedure she recently underwent. I’m so happy Angelina decided to open up about her experience with her fans and just so other women who are going through the same experience as her know that they have options, too. It just makes me love this couple and their family so much more. Angie truly is a hero.

Photos via FameFlynet

Angelina Jolie’s preventative double-mastectomy op-ed is the story of the day, and it’s all anyone can talk about. Us Weekly has a summary of some celebrity reactions – Sheryl Crow, Christina Applegate (both of whom have dealt with breast cancer and mastectomy issues) both tweeted their support for Angelina. A slew of other celebrities have tweeted and commented about it too, all of the comments positive and praising of Angelina and her informative, educational and inspirational op-ed. And in case you were wondering, Brad Pitt has issued a statement too. And so has UK Foreign Secretary (and Angelina’s latest BFF) William Hague.

Brad Pitt today hailed his fiancée Angelina Jolie as “heroic” after the actress revealed she has undergone a double mastectomy because of her extremely high cancer risk. Jolie, 37, revealed she had chosen the surgical procedure as a preventative measure after genetic tests revealed she had an 87 per cent chance of developing breast cancer and a 50 per cent chance of ovarian cancer.

The Oscar-winning actress, whose mother Marcheline Bertrand died of ovarian cancer in 2007 at the age of 56, said she had taken the difficult decision so she could tell her children “they don’t need to fear they will lose me”.

Pitt told the Standard: “Having witnessed this decision firsthand, I find Angie’s choice, as well as so many others like her, absolutely heroic. I thank our medical team for their care and focus. All I want for is for her to have a long and healthy life, with myself and our children. This is a happy day for our family.”

Amazingly, Jolie kept working throughout the past three months, making a high-profile trip to the Congo alongside William Hague and appearing at the G8 Summit in London last month to call for an end to sexual violence in conflict zones.

Mr Hague said today: “This is a brave choice by a remarkable woman. The courage it must have taken not only to go through this treatment but then to speak about it to help other women is truly inspiring. Throughout it all her humanitarian work has not missed a beat. This is a courageous decision by one of the bravest people I know. I wish her and her family the very best.”

[From The Standard]

God, I love Brad. I can just feel how this really did bring them closer together. And I think this is probably why we haven’t heard much about their wedding plans too – they wanted to get all of this stuff sorted out before they officially tied the knot. They are in it for the long haul – the fact that Brad was there every step of the way says that.

People Magazine has a story about how Brad and Angelina kept their schedules “normal” and how they’ve really just been focusing a lot on their kids, like always.

Photos courtesy of WENN.