DRUGS, DRINKING & HOLLYWOOD How Brad Pitt turned his life around

The Hollywood actor reveals how he turned his life around and got sober

One of Tinseltown’s most beloved stars, Brad Pitt has opened up about his sobriety and reflected on his learnings from a year-and-a-half in an all-male Alcoholics Anonymous group. In candid interview with The New York Times, the 55-year-old shared the intimate details about his decision to give up drinking, which came after his split from former wife Angelina Jolie, 44. “I had taken things as far as I could take it, so I removed my drinking privilege,” Pitt said.

The Ad Astra actor told the publication he was touched by his fellow male group members in Alcoholics Anonymous.

“You had all these men sitting around being open and honest in a way I have never heard,” Pitt said. “It was this safe space where there was little judgement, and therefore little judgement of yourself.

“It was actually really freeing just to expose the ugly sides of yourself,” Pitt continued. “There’s great value in that.”

At this stage in his life, Pitt has dedicated time to looking inward, especially as he prepped for his role in Ad Astra – a film about an astronaut in search of his father (Tommy Lee Jones).

He took inspiration from his own father for the performance, Pitt told The NYT, adding that he feels as though he sees his dad in every role he plays at this age.

“I grew up with that be capable, be strong, don’t-show-weakness thing,” Pitt said of his dad – a hardworking American who owned a trucking 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.”

Furthermore, Pitt spoke frankly about struggling with fame at a young age – particularly regarding the media’s attention early on in his career – which he says triggered him to withdraw socially.

“In the ’90s, all that attention really threw me,” Pitt said. “It was really uncomfortable for me, the cacophony of expectations and judgements. I really became a bit of a hermit and just bonged myself into oblivion.”

While at the time he appeared to have a budding career and picture-perfect relationships, with an engagement to Gwyneth Paltrow and marriage to Jennifer Aniston, he revealed that his life wasn’t “the lottery it appeared from the outside”.

Nowadays, he says his focus, in the future, won’t be on the film industry – and he will choose roles wisely. “It’ll be fewer and farther in between for me, just because I have other things I want to do now,” said Pitt, who has a personal interest in sculpting and landscaping. “When you feel like you’ve finally got your arms around something, then it’s time to go get your arms around something else.”