Brad Pitt opens up about quitting drinking after Angelina Jolie divorce: ‘I had taken things as far as I could take it’
Actor Brad Pitt gave up drinking and joined an Alcoholics Anoymous group after his split from Angelina Jolie.
American actor Brad Pitt recently opened up about his journey to sobriety, and what he has learned after spending a year-and-a-half in an all-male Alcoholics Anonymous group. The actor revealed some intimate details about his life in an interview with The New York Times.
The 55-year-old star looked back on his decision to give up drinking, which came after his split from ex-wife Angelina Jolie. "I had taken things as far as I could take it, so I removed my drinking privilege," Pitt said.
The Once Upon A Time In Hollywood star said that he started attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, where he shared the most personal parts of his life. "You had all these men sitting around being open and honest in a way I have never heard. It was this safe space where there was little judgment, and therefore little judgment of yourself," he said. "It was actually really freeing just to expose the ugly sides of yourself. There's great value in that," Pitt added.
The actor has spent a lot of time looking inward lately, especially as he prepared for his role in Ad Astra, a film about an astronaut in search of his father (played by Tommy Lee Jones). He channelled his relationship with his own father for the performance, Pitt said, adding that he has reached a point where he sees his father in every role he plays now.
"I grew up with that be-capable, be-strong, don't-show-weakness thing," Pitt said of his father, who owned a truck company. "In some ways, I'm copying him. He had grown up in extreme hardship and poverty, always dead set on giving me a better life than he had -- and he did it. But he came from that stoic ilk," he added.
Pitt also acknowledged that he used some of his own personal struggles for his role of Roy McBride in Ad Astra. Pitt signed on just months after Jolie's divorce filing. "I had family stuff going on. We'll leave it at that. The fact is, we all carry pain, grief and loss. We spend most of our time hiding it, but it's there, it's in you. So you open up those boxes," he said.
James Gray, the director of the film, agreed that the actor's personal life impacted his performance. "He definitely used the stimuli from his life. Now, I didn't get personal with him about it at all -- I don't think it's my business, or even my job -- but he investigated the essence of the character through himself," Gray said.
Pitt also spoke out about how the media's attention early on in his career forced him to retreat. "In the '90s, all that attention really threw me. It was really uncomfortable for me, the cacophony of expectations and judgments. I really became a bit of a hermit and just bonged myself into oblivion," Pitt said.
Although he appeared to be living the perfect life, with an engagement to Gwyneth Paltrow and previous marriage to Jennifer Aniston, he said it wasn't "the lottery it appeared from the outside." Ad Astra hits the theatres on September 20.
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