Brad Pitt Further Clarifies Jen Aniston Remarks

By Susan Young and Liz Raftery

UPDATED 09/20/2011 at 03:00 PM EDT • Originally published 09/20/2011 at 10:20 AM EDT

The night was devoted to unveiling his latest movie, the based-on-fact baseball movie Moneyball, but Brad Pitt still found a moment to clarify comments he made last week regarding his marriage to Jennifer Aniston.

"That was never my intention for it to be spun that way," he said of those who interpreted his remarks to be critical of his former mate. "People read things into it that just weren't there."

At the Oakland Coliseum, where the movie premiered and much of Moneyball takes place, Pitt, 47, said the role of Oakland Athletics manager Billy Beane offered him a unique behind-the-scenes perspective of America's favorite pastime. (The film is based on nonfiction author Michael Lewis's Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game.)

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"Getting into the Oakland Coliseum and being inside the baseball world is something you just don't get to do every day," he said. "When you are a spectator, you are left behind the gate, so to speak. So getting inside was a real privilege."

But while Pitt, 47, never played baseball himself, it's likely he'll one day be watching son Maddox swing for the fences.

"My son is a big baseball fan," he said. "We went to a Yankees game and we were sitting next to the dugout. [Derek] Jeter offered him a cracked bat, and he said, 'It's broken!' "