TORONTO - Brad Pitt, who stars as legendary outlaw Jesse James in a new film, jokes that the advantage of today's celebrity culture is that people aren't carrying six-shooters around the way they did in James' day.
Even so, as the father of four young children, the 43-year-old actor is mindful of the potential dangers that come with fame.
"It's something that I want to be aware of and be cautious about, especially with the family, that everybody's protected," Pitt told The Associated Press in a recent interview.
"I mean it's rare, but there are imbalanced people out there. I've had break-ins in the house. ... I've had some of these abnormal incidents that can be a bit frightening," he said.
Pitt, who stars in "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford," and Angelina Jolie have been the quarry of celebrity photographers and the object of incessant tabloid gossip since they got together amid the breakup of Pitt's marriage to Jennifer Aniston. A media vigil preceded the birth of their daughter Shiloh in Namibia last year.
When Pitt or Jolie is working, the other takes time off to tend the children, who travel with them wherever they are filming.
"We just take turns and make sure we keep the family together," he said.
Pitt is quick to acknowledge reporters' questions about the couple's plans for more children.
"We're not done. They say, `Any plans for a fifth?' And I say, `And a sixth, and a seventh, and an eighth, and a ninth.' That's my answer," he said.
"We also made a 9-foot-wide bed" that can fit him, Jolie and all four children, Pitt said. "Just big enough. One more and we'll have to go to 11 feet."
