The key to Brad Pitt’s celebrity is that he’s just along for the ride. Everything is chill; everything is laid-back. He’s just a country boy from Missouri. The writers strike derailing the F1 shoot? That just gave him another year to drive, the actor told GQ. The production putting a speed limit on his training? He could blow right by that on his own terms. And his long-contested, messy eight-year divorce from ex-wife Angelina Jolie? “I don’t think it was that major of a thing. Just something coming to fruition. Legally,” he says.
His aw-shucks response to a loaded question is consistent with his permanently low-key demeanor. Earlier in the conversation with GQ, he calls the interviewer “bro” and says that “some version” of his personal life has been in the public eye for three decades. Alluding to all this being both a nonevent and maybe misunderstood is part and parcel in regard to how Pitt has responded to the divorce since around 2019. In a GQ profile ahead of Ad Astra and Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood, the actor likened his relationship to fame as feeling like a gazelle. “And the tigers, you know, they’re in there. They’re in the grass. And you’ve lost the herd. You’re not connected to the herd anymore. And it’s that. It is that loss of privacy. And being hunted,” he explained.
While it’s not totally crazy that Pitt wouldn’t jump into the weeds of his divorce — does any celebrity actually want to be forthright about their alleged darker history? — his deflection and reframing himself as the victim are part of why this story gets brought up again and again. A key part of his separation and ongoing legal battle with Jolie over their shared French winery, Château Miraval, was that he felt attacked by Jolie selling off her shares of the property to the Stoli company. The two got locked into yearslong litigation over the property, with allegations from Jolie’s legal team that Pitt would not let her sell her shares of Château Miraval without signing an “expansive” NDA about their relationship. He really, really didn’t want to make what happened a big deal — so much so that he then made it a big deal.
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For Pitt to deflect his divorce is also to neglect that the last time he had a big glossy profile (also in GQ), he and Wolfs co-star George Clooney sat down and answered questions at Château Miraval, even while the property was being litigated. They discuss how nice the property is and how much work Pitt put into the estate. He cares so much that he expanded the lake on the property — an action that even Clooney finds absurd. He has drawn attention to this part of his life again and again. It’s almost as though the gazelle has a megaphone.
His most recent answer to the divorce question feels flip, if only because there are years of legal filings that claim it was anything but. In making the finalization of his divorce sound like something natural — “something coming to fruition” calls to mind the inevitability of time or seasons — Pitt continues to spin the fantasy that he is a guy who is just trying to vibe out through very not vibe-y times. When compared to Jolie’s tearful appearance at the Maria premiere in Venice or her confession that she had Bell’s palsy post-separation, his lack of vulnerability confuses the reader and Jolie. The celebrity paradox strikes — we’ve been conditioned to care, but his lack of affect comes off as cold and uncaring. But we know he cares. Every bit of press since his divorce has shown us what matters: He has emphasized his connection to nature, his desire to maybe retire, his newfound friendships with sculptors, and how different he is now from how he was then. This level of care and concern was apparent in his press campaign for Once Upon a Time …, and it was apparent when he sold shirts with ex-girlfriend Gwyneth Paltrow. He is reformed, softer — or so he tells us. None of this has ever been casual for Pitt. He might get to zoom off into the sunset after years of turmoil, but the dust that settles tells a different story.
