A fiercely guarded private life and a small but arguably brilliant body of work have made Terrence Malick something of an enigma within an industry that usually demands exhaustive dissection. The existential meditation that is his latest film, “The Tree of Life,” has only served to exaggerate the notoriously interview-shy director’s mystique.

Yet the film’s star and producer, Brad Pitt, says Malick’s aversion to the public eye has nothing to do with cultivating a reputation.

“He is just a very, very humble craftsman. In a sense, he’s like a sculptor working alone in his studio,” Pitt says.

Any perceived secrecy surrounding his sets is about protecting a carefully crafted environment designed to capture what Pitt describes as the “truthful missteps” that unintentionally diverge from his dense scripts.

“He is kind of like a guy standing there with a butterfly net, waiting and waiting and waiting for a monarch to fly by.

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