Brad Pitt is probably one of the most famous people on the planet. However, not everyone knows the following details from his life.
Superstar Brad Pitt turns 60. Much of the actor’s private and professional life is well known to the public. But many people may not know the following six details.
Brad Pitt was a member of Alcoholics Anonymous for a long time
Brad Pitt’s second wife Angelina Jolie (48) filed for divorce in September 2016 after the star allegedly became violent during a flight from France to Los Angeles. What exactly happened on board the private plane has since been disputed between the ex-spouses. Even the FBI investigated, but no charges were ever filed.
But that same month, Pitt began attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. “I had gone as far as I could, so I took away my drinking privileges,” the star revealed a few years later to the “New York Times”.
The meetings he attended over the next year and a half helped Pitt a lot, he said. “All these men were sitting there being open and honest in a way that I hadn’t known before.” For him it was “liberating” to reveal his “ugly sides” to this group. Surprisingly, none of the other therapy participants sold the Hollywood star’s certainly very private stories to the tabloid press or otherwise divulged them.
Brad Pitt doesn’t particularly like his blockbuster “Troy”.
The epic historical film “Troy” by the German director Wolfgang Petersen (1941-2022) is one of Pitt’s most financially successful works, with worldwide box office receipts of almost 500 million US dollars. But the star himself doesn’t seem to particularly like the film, in which he embodies the ancient legendary hero Achilles.
According to his own statement, Pitt had to star in the blockbuster about the siege of Troy by a Greek force under King Agamemnon (Brian Cox, 77) because he had an obligation to the film studio Warner Bros. “The way the film was told wasn’t the way I wanted it to be […]. I couldn’t get out of the middle of the frame. It drove me crazy […]. Every shot said, ‘Here is the hero.’ There was no mystery,” Pitt revealed in an interview with the “New York Times”.
To make matters worse, the star injured his Achilles tendon during filming, which resulted in a production stop for several weeks. This is not without a certain irony, as the legendary hero Achilles he embodied was only vulnerable in his Achilles heel.
Brad Pitt is also extremely successful as a film producer
Brad Pitt, the actor, is one of the biggest stars on the planet – if not the biggest. But as a film producer, the now 60-year-old also has some impressive successes. His production company Plan B Entertainment, which was founded in 2001 – at the time with ex-wife Jennifer Aniston (54) – produced the successful films “Departed – Among Enemies” with Leonardo DiCaprio (49), the slavery drama “12 Years a Slave” and “Moonlight ” co-produced – renowned works, all of which were awarded the Oscar for “Best Film” of the year at the Academy Awards.
The production Oscar for “12 Years a Slave” is even considered Pitt’s personal Oscar triumph – thanks to complicated regulations from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Therefore, the star has two Academy Awards in his illustrious career. One as a producer, the other as “Best Supporting Actor” for “Once Upon a Time In… Hollywood”.
“As a producer, you’re part of a team that brings the story to the screen,” Pitt told The in 2012 “Interview Magazine”, adding, “She wouldn’t be on screen if it wasn’t for you and a group of people committed to it. I like that.” It sounds like Pitt has found a kind of second calling within the film industry – alongside acting.
Brad Pitt sacrificed his front teeth for Fight Club
In David Fincher’s (61) cult classic “Fight Club” from 1999, Pitt plays the extremely rowdy character Tyler Durden, who is known to fight with many other men in the so-called Fight Club. In order to portray Durden as convincingly as possible on screen, the actor voluntarily had his dentist break his front teeth.
Durden looked like a true street fighter in the completed film. “Brad is willing to go to great lengths for a character,” his publicist Cindy Guagenti revealed in the summer of 1998 “Entertainment Weekly”. After filming, the star of course had the front part of his teeth repaired.
Strippers changed Brad Pitt’s life
In one Video available on YouTube Brad Pitt describes how, as a young man, he first tried to gain a foothold in the film metropolis of Los Angeles. During this period, today’s Hollywood star worked as a chauffeur for nude dancers and strippers for two months.
He drove the ladies to events such as bachelor parties, where he said he played “bad Prince cassettes” and picked up the discarded clothing. The entire atmosphere around the job became “very, very depressing” after a while, says Pitt, but during his last driving job one of the dancers is said to have recommended him an acting course with the now deceased actor teacher Roy London, which took place in the following years became a kind of mentor to Pitt. That set the course for his later world career. That’s why the star sums up: “Strippers have changed my life.”
Pitt’s unusual favorite film
Not many of the star’s fans will have seen The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. Although Pitt received the “Best Actor” award at the 64th Venice International Film Festival in 2007 for his performance in the quiet western drama, the work of “Blond” director Andrew Dominik (56) was only successful at the global box office Grossing 15 million US dollars – against a rumored production budget of 30 million dollars.
That’s no comparison at all to Pitt’s highest-grossing blockbusters such as “Troy”, “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” or “World War Z”, which all generated sales of around 500 million US dollars at the box office.
The Hollywood star, who seems so likeable, says he likes his rare film flop the most out of all his works. “I can keep churning out hits. My favorite film is the worst-performing film of all I’ve ever made, ‘The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.’ When I think something matters, I know it “His time will come,” Pitt said in 2017 to “GQ”.