The actor, voted ‘sexiest man alive’ countless times during his career, doesn’t disappoint when he casually strides out onto the terrace of a Mexican hotel for a photocall to promote his new baseball movie Moneyball.

Brad Pitt is tall and broad, having spent the last few months in training for the film World War Z, a post-apocalyptic horror, which has seen Pitt, his partner Angelina Jolie and their brood of six reside in Glasgow, London and Cornwall during filming.

His dark blonde hair is grown out and tucked behind his ears. As befitting a 47-year-old, his stubble is salt-and-pepper grey. He is professional but reserved. While he smiles and cracks jokes for the cameras with co-star Jonah Hill, his eyes remain hidden behind aviator sunglasses and his hands stay tucked into the pockets of cream linen trousers.

During the interview talk naturally turns to baseball, the subject of the film. While he likes to play ball with his kids, his own relationship with the all-American sport has been traumatic.

“I knew very little about baseball besides taking one in the face when I was in junior high,” he laughs. “Eighteen stitches. This scar here,” he says pointing to the side of his head

Moneyball is based on the controversial 2003 book Moneyball: The Art Of Winning An Unfair Game in which the author Michael Lewis wrote about the exploits of Billy Beane (Pitt), a former baseball player turned general manager of Oakland A’s baseball team.

Beane revolutionised the way the baseball industry assessed its players by employing a statistical analysis that showed the qualities historically used to value players were outdated.

He then bought players who’d been ignored by larger, more lucrative teams, but who would help his team to victory.

“The film didn’t fall into convention and it was a difficult one to get made,” admits Brad. “We’re in tough economic times and people start betting on safer, more tried-and tested brands.”

While he’s never spent a lot of time watching baseball, he became obsessed by the book.

“Billy Beane’s team had a $40 million payroll and they were trying to compete with teams with $240 million payrolls. It forced these guys to back up and say: ‘We can’t fight how the other guys fight. We have to search for new baseball knowledge.’.”

Through that process they discovered great inefficiencies on how people were judged, and Brad says: “The film is ultimately about how we place value on people and how society informs how we value ourselves.”