Wishing our executive producer, Brad Pitt, good luck on Sunday! #Oscars #LEGOMastersFOX pic.twitter.com/OVyjUXN0sA— LEGO Masters FOX (@LEGOMastersFOX) February 8, 2020
And the Oscar for best acceptance speeches would go to Brad Pitt and Joaquin Phoenix https://t.co/61bVQJmKea— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) February 8, 2020
Gotta hand it to Brad Pitt. That joke writer has been money well spent!— Kris Tapley (@kristapley) February 5, 2020
...America has a collective weakness, and his name is Brad Pitt https://t.co/HRgDEuESwl— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) February 5, 2020
Or
it might have something to do with our own psyches. For some deep-seated
reason, people cling to the idea of Brad 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. Maybe we just yearn for
simpler times, and in our minds, that time is represented by a tanned
and sculpted Pitt at his peak, named People’s “Sexiest Man Alive” not
once, but twice.
“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 analyzed
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.”
Schaberg, an English professor at Loyola University New Orleans,
remembers when he brought up a potential book about Pitt. He was
half-joking, but his colleagues loved the idea: "Deconstructing Brad Pitt" was released in 2014, co-edited by Robert Bennett.
“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
too long ago, that didn’t seem as if it would be the case. Pitt and
Jolie’s sudden breakup in the fall of 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 still is
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 behavior 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,” the quotes were
picked up by hundreds of publications and websites, which had 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: Brad 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 declared he
would put his SAG trophy in his Tinder profile. At the National Board of
Review gala, he explained his goals were “to be happy, stay healthy,
not get into a financial situation where I have to do ‘Ocean’s 14.’ ” At
the BAFTAs, co-star Margot Robbie read a speech in his absence that
said he would name his trophy “Harry” because “he is really excited
about bringing it back to the States with him.” (In the audience, Prince
William and Duchess Catherine cracked up.)
Leslie Bennetts, a longtime Vanity Fair journalist who authored the famous Aniston profile
post-divorce in which the actress proclaimed Pitt had a “sensitivity
chip” missing, said Pitt’s knack for humor, self-deprecation and
candidness has played a key role in how he has shaped his perception in
the past several years, especially after his split with Jolie.
“That
could have been a career-ending image if it gained traction, especially
in the current climate — but instead, whether it’s a genuine reflection
of his real personality or handling this in a smarter way than most
men, he’s defused the whole thing,” Bennetts said. “He has done
something that is very rare with men in public life, which is own his
mistakes. Fully. He’s said, ‘I had things to deal with and I dealt with
them.’”
Bennetts
vividly recalls the overwhelming interest in the Pitt-Aniston split,
and wasn’t surprised by the extreme reaction to the SAG Awards photos of
the two exes sharing a nice moment backstage. The images led to a
deluge of headlines, generally along the theme of “Jennifer Aniston and
Brad Pitt’s Hug at the 2020 SAG Awards Is the Only Thing That Matters” (E! Online
published that one). The response, Bennetts said, proved the
“incredible persistence of our sort of fairy tale fantasies that are as
simple-minded as those of a typical rom-com.”
Ultimately,
it goes back to why these celebrity stories hit a nerve: People see
themselves in them. They want to believe that a couple who seemed like
soul mates 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 behavior, they believe in his
redemption.
“Brad
has handled this awards season masterfully,” said Kate Coyne, People
magazine’s editorial director of entertainment. “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.’”
