‘THAT IS A MOVIE STAR’
Viewers have a collective weakness and his name is William Bradley Pitt
Gather around, we need to have a chat. The Academy Awards are almost upon us, and it’s time to discuss our collective cultural weakness that has apparently only grown more intense over time: His name is William Bradley Pitt.
You might have seen him practically floating through award season, buoyed by a glowing narrative that has him poised to win the Oscar on Sunday for best supporting actor for his role in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood. He has picked up the prize at every major ceremony, including the Golden Globes, the Critics’ Choice Awards and the BAFTAS. Viewers and stars in the audience meet his acceptance speeches with delighted reactions, especially when he references his single status. He went viral for wearing a name tag to the Oscar nominees luncheon. The pictures of a cordial reunion at the Screen Actors Guild Awards with his ex-wife Jennifer Aniston caused an internet meltdown.
On one hand, that’s great for Pitt. After a three-decade career, the 56-year-old actor remains a unifying fixture, an A-list movie star who brings joy to many. It’s also great for us, because honestly, we need a distraction from the onslaught of stress-inducing news about politics, climate change and other disasters.
On the other hand — well ... the Aniston pictures have a strange undertone, because as you may remember, she and Pitt were still married when rumblings of his famously controversial courtship with Angelina Jolie began. And Pitt is single after a very messy split from Jolie in 2016 that resulted in some ugly headlines.
Yet mostly, when it comes to Pitt, few people seem to really care about anything negative. They just want to root for him. How did he escape the scrutiny?
It might have something to do with our own psyches. For some deep-seated reason, people cling to the idea of Pitt as they think they know him — or, though it’s impossible to know what goes on behind closed doors, as they want to know him: the strikingly attractive, humble Missouri native who just happened to become a superstar and has made serious mistakes but is trying to change.
“It has been so surreal — it’s like there’s this nostalgia for some kind of perceived stability from the 1990s when everything made sense,” said Christopher Schaberg, who co-edited a collection of essays that analyze Pitt. “I think there’s a really deep and weird expression of longing here . ... We forget this is Hollywood, this is a celebrity, this is a lot of makeup and camera work. There’s a really weird urge to express authenticity around Brad Pitt.
“One of the things that’s always intrigued me is the way we want to see him as this idealized white male figure, but so many of his roles are self-destructive,” Schaberg said. But whether he’s actually destructive in Fight Club or falling into a serial killer’s trap in Se7en or playing a breezy criminal in Ocean’s 11, it doesn’t matter. Even if it’s the Hollywood machine shaping a narrative with magazine covers and talk-show appearances, “Brad Pitt is just a safe, neutral icon to kind of rally around right now.”
Not very long ago, that didn’t seem as if it would be the case. Pitt and Jolie’s sudden breakup in 2016 dominated the news cycle as reports emerged about an alleged altercation between Pitt and one of their children on the family’s plane. The Los Angeles County Department of Child and Family Services was called, and Pitt was cleared after an investigation. But the situation devolved into warring stories about Pitt’s alcohol issues, child custody and financial battles as Pitt and Jolie worked through their divorce, which reportedly is still not finalized.
Pitt essentially went into hiding until the following spring, when he sat for a GQ cover story to promote Netflix’s War Machine. He opened up about how his drinking became a problem; the pain of divorce and the call to child services; and how jarring it was for his kids to “suddenly have their family ripped apart.”
“It wasn’t the easiest conversation to go into, but he was willing to,” said author and journalist Michael Paterniti, who wrote the story. Pitt also revealed that before he got sober, he hadn’t gone a day since college where he didn’t drink or smoke.
“He felt like he had to explain himself,” Paterniti said. “It was his way of acknowledging that his behaviour was not commensurate with who he wanted to be as a person.” Pitt agreed to speak candidly about any topic for a lengthy Q&A, and there was no publicist in the room. “It felt like he had to reset the conversation around himself.”
Although Paterniti remembers some critics “didn’t buy into it,” hundreds of publications and websites picked up the quotes, with a generally positive tone. Paterniti theorizes that the simple act of Pitt appearing to be candid continues to draw people to him. He has now opened up in multiple interviews about his sobriety or attending Alcoholics Anonymous. There’s something enticing about that level of honesty, Paterniti said, especially from someone who “happens to be Brad Pitt.”
As Pitt strolls merrily along to his likely first Oscar win (this is his fourth acting nomination), his many acceptance speeches have also reminded the public: Pitt is funny.
At the Golden Globes, he said, “I wanted to bring my mom but I couldn’t, because any woman I stand next to, they say I’m dating.” He said he would put his SAG trophy in his Tinder profile. At the National Board of Review gala, he said his goals were “to be happy, stay healthy, not get into a financial situation where I have to do Ocean’s 14.”
Ultimately, it goes back to why these celebrity stories like the Pitt-aniston reunion hit a nerve: People see themselves in them. They want to believe that a couple who seemed like soulmates can reunite even after a devastating breakup. They want to believe that Pitt, despite the wealth and fame and scandals, is just a nice guy from the Midwest who has never forgotten his roots. And even if people had issues with Pitt’s past behaviour, they believe in his redemption.
“Brad has handled this awards season masterfully,” said Kate Coyne, executive editor of People magazine. “Even if you haven’t seen the movie, but you heard him make these ongoing jokes about Tinder profiles and his much-remarked upon personal life — he’s been funny, he’s been charming. You look at him and go, ‘That is a movie star.’”