Brad Pitt at Cannes: I Hope My Kids Will Think I'm a 'Pretty Damn Good Actor'

Brad Pitt recently discussed his kids, growing up questioning religion and the trajectory of his enviable career at the Cannes Film Festival press conference for his latest film, 'The Tree of Life', also starring Sean Penn and Jessica Chastain.  Brad plays an extremely strict, oppressive father of three boys in the highly anticipated period piece about life in 1950s Texas, which is being described as being about a boy's loss of innocence and true coming of age as a "lost soul in the modern world".  The intense drama is directed by the notoriously private director Terrence Malick, whose previous films include 'The Thin Red Line' and 'The New World.'

According to Brad, his own Christian upbringing and his questioning of it growing up, was a big factor that drew him to the film.

"For me I grew up with Christianity, and I remember questioning greatly some things that didn't work for me, [and] some things did," Brad says. "I grew up being told that God's gonna take care of everything and it doesn't always work out that way, and when it doesn't work out that way, then it's God's will. I got my issues man, don't even get me started...I got my issues," he jokes.

He also recalls his hesitation at playing such an oppressive father in the film because of the effect it would have on his personal life, particularly on his six kids with Angelina Jolie.

"You know, I think about everything I do now and what my kids are going to see when they grow up and how are they going to feel," he says. "But they know me as a dad and I hope they'll just think I'm a pretty damn good actor," he smiles.

When asked about his enviable career as one of the biggest stars in the world, and why he is more drawn to intense dramas such as 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button' and now 'The Tree of Life' instead of money-making blockbusters, he cites his desire to always try something new as the main reason his career has taken a turn for the less generic path.

"Well don't count me out of 'Mission: Impossible'...because, I'll be there," he jokes. "...I always want to find something different, that's been my focus. But the point is to just keep mixing it up and I figure I only got so many more of these that I'll get to do. I want to make sure that it has some worth to me and has some worth out there instead of something that's more disposable."