Don Cheadle and his Ocean’s 12 castmates know their way around a paparazzi or two. The actor shared this week his secret weapon for avoiding constant cameras while on set of the 2004 film: Distract the press with Brad Pitt.
Cheadle starred in Ocean’s Twelve, a follow up to 2001’s Ocean’s Eleven, alongside George Clooney, Matt Damon and Brad Pitt, among others.
“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 on the Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend podcast. “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 — ” and Cheadle made a ‘whoosh!’ gesture. “‘Is that Brad?!’”
At the time of Ocean’s Twelve, Brad Pitt’s stardom was already hard to conceptualize, Cheadle said.
“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 with a reflection on fame. “It’s hard,” he said. “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.’”
