The recent decisions of the children of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt regarding their father raise questions. On the day she came of age, Shiloh, the star couple’s first biological daughter, filed an official request to drop her father’s last name. For their part, Zahara and Vivienne did not wait for justice to remove Pitt from their last name. In 2020, an Instagram account, attributed to his son Pax, posted an incendiary message about Brad Pitt: “Happy Father’s Day to this first-rate asshole. You have proven time and time again that you are a horrible, despicable person.”
Accused of violence against Angelina Jolie and some of her children during a plane ride in 2016, the image of the Hollywood sex symbol has never been damaged. Praised by his peers, adored by the press, why has the MeToo wave never given this icon of the seventh art a drink?
Angelina Jolie, a bad victim?
The Nice-Los Angeles trip on September 14, 2016 marks the end of the Jolie-Pitt family. An endless flight where Brad Pitt, drunk, is accused of having insulted his elder Maddox, suffocated another and assaulted Angelina Jolie. “They began to fight,” the FBI report said a few weeks later, and the altercation continued to the rear door of the plane. Pitt allegedly pushed Jolie to the ground and told the children that they were not getting off the plane,” quote Laurence Pieau and Hervé Tropéa in Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, the secrets of the divorce of the century (Practical Hachette, 2023).
“While parents and children were crowding in front of the door of the jet, Brad allegedly attacked one of the children. The American press relayed the FBI report which states that “Pitt grabbed Jolie’s arm and turned her towards him. Then he grabbed her by the head and shoulders and shook her “Don’t hurt him!” one of the children exclaimed before their mother could get away,” says the same work. The actress leaves the plane with a bruise on her elbow, a mark on her back and another on her hand. Photos which would come out only six years later, when she filed a complaint against the FBI. For his part, Brad Pitt admits to his argument with Maddox, the couple’s eldest son, but denies having hit him.
“Angelina Jolie did not have the support of feminists and that is quite surprising,” confirms Laurence Pieau. The image of a relationship wrecker has stuck with her since the beginning of her affair with Brad Pitt on the set of Mr. and Mrs. Smith. At the time, he was married to Jennifer Aniston. “She’s not very likeable, she’s sharp, disruptive, she chooses roles for women who don’t give in. And the storytelling, that’s not his thing. She says what she thinks,” observes the former editorial director of Closer.
The map of redemption
Until the accusations of violence, Angelina Jolie took on the role of the relentless, a little crazy, just as Jennifer Aniston in her time took on (wrongly) that of the selfish careerist who did not want children. More than fifteen years after their breakup, the interpreter of Rachel in Friends told in an interview with the American magazine Allure published in December 2022 her long struggle to become a mother. Each time, the narration used in the media highlights the actor. “Across the way, there is Brad Pitt who is a kind of blond angel, who ages extremely well,” points out Laurence Pieau. We forgive everything to the sacred monster of Hollywood.
A few months after Angelina Jolie’s divorce filing, he plays the redemption card in a long interview with GQ. ” Her storytelling was perfect. The hero who falls and stops drinking. He lets himself be forgotten for a while, he takes up sculpture. When he returns, he receives a standing ovation from his peers. He never says one word louder than the other about Angelina Jolie,” describes Laurence Pieau. He never publicly accuses him.
In 2023, when Brad Pitt arrives at the Golden Globes, it’s hard to imagine that the hashtag #BradPittisAnAbuser [Brad Pitt est un agresseur] emerges on social networks. “When some people call to erase him, he receives a standing ovation, the cameras are focused on him. Austin Butler yells: You’re one of my heroes, Brad, I love you! », describes Laurence Pieau. He came to take the pulse of Hollywood and nothing has changed. However, a controversy arose when the film was released. She Said, three months earlier. Carried by Carey Mulligan and Zoe Kazan, it traces the long investigation of Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor, the two journalists from New York Times at the origin of the revelations about Harvey Weinstein. The appearance of Brad Pitt, as executive producer, in the film’s credits goes poorly.
The hashtag #BradPittisAnAbuser
Already in 2021, his image as a white knight is taking a hit. So far, Brad Pitt is known for having confronted the all-powerful producer, sentenced in 2020 to twenty-three years in prison. In 1994, the young Brad Pitt, then in a relationship with Gwyneth Paltrow, pushed Harvey Weinstein and warned him never to touch her again. Angelina Jolie was also a victim of the producer in 1996. And Brad Pitt knows it. This does not prevent the star from collaborating twice with Harvey Weinstein. In an interview with Guardian published in September 2021, Angelina Jolie says that Brad Pitt would have approached the predator so that he could produce Killing Them Softly (2012).
Hypocrite Brad Pitt? This is the opinion of some feminists. But nothing works, the hashtag #BradPittisAnAbuser falls like a bellows. The actor is applauded at the Golden Globes and the Césars in 2023. He is announced in the casting of Quentin Tarantino’s next and final film, he is appearing in Wolfs alongside George Clooney in September 2024. At 60, Brad Pitt is at the top. With hindsight, he can thank the timing. If the incident on the plane had taken place a year later, his career would certainly have turned out differently.