Bobby Kotick's cameo in Moneyball, even after it was confirmed by Activision, remained quite the WTF mystery of June. Why was he appearing as the Oakland A's owner in a sports flick? Did he know Brad Pitt? Did he know the director? Was this some hint at a Call of Duty movie?
Actually, yes, he tells Reuters. Kotick knows the director, Bennett Miller, and his appearance is a favor, which Miller returned by directing a short film for Activision's Call of Duty endowment, which will be released later.
Here's how Kotick tells it.
We were having dinner and Bennett was talking about Moneyball and he asked me a little bit about an owner's psychology and what an owner would be like. I started reading the script and I said, I really think the words don't capture how an owner would react to this part of the conversation. I also loved Michael Lewis' book Moneyball . We were having this back and forth and Bennett said "why don't you do it? It would make the role very authentic." And I said, "I will, but only if you made my Call of Duty endowment movie."
Kotick says he does not get a credit in the film and "you'll never see me acting again."
How Bobby Kotick ended up alongside Brad Pitt in "Moneyball" [Reuters]