He could easily be described as a star with old-fashioned glamour, but that was certainly not the only reason he reached the top of the American film industry. Brad Pitt is not only handsome, ideal for magazine covers and headlines, but also a good actor. His unstable life, romantic adventures, and divorces—especially the one with Angelina Jolie—may have preoccupied the media and the public more than his acting performances, but in his more than 35 years in the business, he has given some remarkable performances, won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, and also an Oscar for Best Picture as a producer for 12 Years a Slave. At the same time, he has been chosen by renowned directors such as Terry Gilliam, Terrence Malick, Steven Soderbergh, Neil Jordan, Ridley Scott, and Quentin Tarantino.
The blue-eyed, richly blond-haired leading man, however, could be said to have done himself an injustice by appearing in a number of merely commercial films, lacking in substance and relying solely on his good looks, his youthful appearance, and the mannerisms of a rebellious young man, imitating either Paul Newman or, more importantly, his cinema idol, Marlon Brando. He may have been established as ‘the sexiest man« in the world in the 1990s, but he never became Brando, let alone Newman. However, we should not be unfair to him. American cinema has lost its glamour, the scripts resemble, at best, failed copies of older ones, while box office receipts and balance sheets are the sole priority for the big Hollywood studios. And, of course, the fortitude of an actor who rejects 90 percent of the scripts he reads is probably a thing of the distant past, if not a fantasy of orthodox cinephiles.
Brad Pitt, who turned 60 on December 18, 1963, and having sorted out his painful divorce from Angelina Jolie, which cost him his reputation, possibly some good roles and friendships, and leaving behind his problems with alcohol and other addictions, he looks to the future with optimism, although he must realize that he has to abandon the natural charms of youth and enter the deep waters of maturity. Most likely, especially for Pitt, old age will be delayed by a decade or so compared to the rest of us.
In Hollywood as... a chicken
Pete was born a month after John F. Kennedy's assassination in Oklahoma and grew up in Springfield, Missouri, in a typical middle-class American family, along with his two brothers. In his youth, he excelled in sports and acting, participating in school musicals. He studied journalism at the University of Missouri and spent his free time acting in amateur theater groups. However, his love for cinema forced him to drop out of university two weeks before graduating to travel to the wonderful world of cinematic dreams, Hollywood. There he took acting classes, doing odd jobs to make ends meet, including chauffeur for «home strippers’ and, best of all, greeter at a fast food chain, where he welcomed customers dressed as a chicken!
The role of the «vagrant» will catapult him to fame.
So, with his experience as a chicken, he spread his wings and began making appearances in films. In 1987, he will take a small role in the excellent thriller «Dead End,» starring Kevin Costner and Gene Hackman, and some minor roles in other productions, while also entering television. His career began to take off, but without any particular prospects. That was until Ridley Scott chose him for a distinctive role in the hugely successful «Thelma & Louise.» Pitt, playing a wandering young vagrant and having a love scene with Geena Davis, became more widely known, and the first magazine covers and headlines about America's new sex symbol began to appear. Essentially, this was the springboard for his career, which would take off in the 1990s.
Acting ability
The following year, he starred in Robert Redford's drama «A River Runs Through It,» proving that he can act, while in 1994 he will appear alongside Tom Cruise and Antonio Banderas in Neil Jordan's hugely successful and artistic «Interview with the Vampire.» This was followed by the hugely successful horror film «Seven,» co-starring Morgan Freeman, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Kevin Spacey. However, it was in Terry Gilliam's excellent film «Twelve Monkeys» that he proved his acting ability and received his first Golden Globe and an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor.
Once upon a time in... Hollywood
Successes will now come thick and fast over the next few decades for Pitt, who will become one of the biggest names in the film industry. The revenue from the films «Ocean's Eleven,» «The 12,» and so on, which he made with George Clooney, would also give rise to a film production company, which would earn him an Oscar for Best Picture for the dramatic period adventure «12 Years a Slave.» His latest personal success, which also earned him the coveted Oscar, was in Tarantino's cinephile film «Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,» alongside his friend Leonardo DiCaprio.
The painful divorce and detoxification
In his personal life, however, things did not go as well. After his first unsuccessful marriage to Jennifer Aniston, he married Angelina Jolie, followed by an eventful divorce, which would remain a sad memory for him. In a confessional interview after the much-publicized divorce, he will refer to his alcoholism, his problems with anger management, his psychological trauma, his loss, and his attempt to spend his life trying to hide the pieces of himself. He confessed that drinking «was the way to put his demons to sleep» and that when he realized he had crossed every line, he decided to quit cold turkey, spending six months in rehab.
Cocktails
Today, now in his 60s, Brad Pitt, having made a strong comeback in his life, seems reconciled with his demons, continues to love stuntmen and everyone who works to make a film, admires Tarantino, loves to drink cocktails with DiCaprio, and, of course, makes plans for the last part of his artistic journey.
X. Anagnostakis
