BRAD PITT BREAKS HIS SILENCE

The actor comes clean on his personal issues while discussing his new Netflix film War Machine

Brad Pitt and Gen. Stanley McChrystal - the inspiration to Pitt’s fourstar Afghanistan commander in the upcoming Netflix war satire War Machine - would seem to be worlds apart. One, an affable member of Hollywood’s elite; the other a hard-charging lifetime military man. But Pitt found one connection with his character: a swollen ego, and the damage done.

“Hubris is a trap and it’s the trap of every great nation that has been number one for too long. You start believing your own stink,” Pitt says. “Anytime I’ve gotten in trouble, it’s because of my own hubris.”

Pitt, at the moment, may be particularly empathetic to such a drastic swing as the one that sank McChrystal via an infamous Rolling Stone profile. Pitt is now, for the first time since Angelina Jolie Pitt filed for divorce from him last September, stepping back into the limelight. He hasn’t been timid. In his first post-separation interview, to GQ , Pitt was unusually candid, speaking frankly about his struggles with alcohol and the pains of dividing their family.

Pitt was similarly forthright in a wide-ranging interview recently with The Associated Press. He called directly - “Hey man, it’s Brad” - and over the course of half an hour, discussed his present state of mind, his current attitude about acting and his alarm at the possibility of expanding the war in Afghanistan.

I’m not suicidal or something. There’s still much beauty in the world and a lot of love.” Brad Pitt We’re human and I find the human condition very interesting. If we’re not talking about it, then we’re not getting better.” Brad Pitt