Brad Pitt

Some Lesser Known Facts About Brad Pitt

• Brad Pitt belongs to Hollywood A-listers. Apart from his on-screen success, he is also known for his humanitarian efforts.

• His parents, William Alvin Pitt and Jane Etta Hillhouse, met at Oklahoma Baptist University.

• After a year of his parents’ marriage, Brad was born in Shawnee, Oklahoma. A few years later, the family moved to Tulsa and then settled in Springfield, Missouri, where Brad grew up with his younger siblings, Doug and Julie.

  

• In an interview, Brad Pitt talked about growing up in Springfield, Missouri, which he described as “Mark Twain Country,” and said,
  

  Well, it was Springfield, Missouri, which is a big place now, but we grew up surrounded by cornfields. Ten minutes outside of town, you start getting into forests and rivers and the Ozark mountains, stunning country.”

  

• According to Brad, his father encouraged a “be-capable, be-strong” attitude. In an interview, Brad said his father wanted to give him a better life. He said,
  

  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.”

• In childhood, he wanted to be a rock star rather than an actor.

• While studying at Kickapoo High School, Brad was a member of the golf, swimming, and tennis teams, and he actively participated in school debates and musicals.

• In 1982, he was voted as the best dressed in school.

  

• When Brad was in his last semester of a bachelor’s degree in journalism at Missouri University, he left the city and moved to Los Angeles. His parents and siblings still live in Springfield, Missouri.

• Brad struggled to establish himself in Los Angeles, where he took acting lessons and did odd jobs. His first job was at “el Pollo Loco,” a chain of Mexican Restaurants, where he had to wear a chicken suit.

  

• Acting coach Roy London provided him with early acting lessons.

• The 1989 horror film Cutting Class was Brad Pitt’s first film to reach theatres.

• In 1991, Levi’s Jeans featured him in its TV commercial based around the song “20th Century Boy.”

  

• After doing several supporting roles in films and making guest appearances on television shows, Brad Pitt was first recognized for his supporting role in Ridley Scott’s 1991 road film Thelma & Louise in which he played a small-time criminal named J.D. He was defined as a sex symbol after giving a love scene with Geena Davis in the film.

  

• Before Brad Pitt, the role went to William Baldwin for Thelma & Louise; however, Baldwin dropped out. Later, George Clooney, Mark Ruffalo, and Robert Downey Jr. were also considered for the role. It was reportedly Geena Davis who picked Brad to do the part.

• His next attention grabber was the 1992 biographical film A River Runs Through It in which he played the role of Paul Maclean. Brad Pitt learned fly-fishing for four weeks before shooting.

  

• Bard Pitt’s breakthrough performance came with the 1995 crime thriller Seven in which he played the role of a detective. He injured his arm during a chase scene in which Mills chases John Doe in the rain. The accident was later incorporated into the script. In the original script, Detective Mills was supposed to get injured.
  

• After Seven, he appeared as psychotic anarchist Jeffrey Goines in the 1995 science fiction film “12 Monkeys,” which earned him a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor and his first Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.
  

• The media often describes him as a sex-symbol. In 1995, People magazine awarded him with the tag “Sexist Man Alive,” which he won again in 2000.

  

• China banned Brad Pitt’s entry in the country for appearing in the 1997 movie “Seven Years in Tibet.” However, he visited China in 2016 to promote a film. When Heinrich Harrer first met the 14th Dalai Lama in 1945, Harrer was 34 years old; Brad Pitt was also 34 years old when the film was released in 1997.

• His portrayal as Tyler Durden in the 1999 film Fight Club was widely praised. He trained for months to portray the role. The pieces of his front teeth were removed during the filming, which were restored when filming ended.
  

• On 22 November 2001, Brad Pitt made a guest appearance in the eighth season of the popular American sitcom Friends in which he played a man with a grudge against Rachel Green, a fictional character played by his then-wife Jennifer Aniston.
  

• In the 2001 heist film Ocean’s Eleven, he played Rusty Ryan. The film was a huge success at the box office. He later reprised the role in Ocean’s Twelve (2004) and Ocean’s Thirteen (2007).

  

• He made two episodic appearances in MTV’s reality series Jackass in February 2002.

• Brad Pitt portrayed Achilles in the 2004 epic historical war film Troy for which he received sword training for six months. Troy was the first film produced by his production company Plan B Entertainment.

  

• His chemistry with Angelina Jolie in the 2005 action comedy film Mr. & Mrs. Smith received worldwide praise. Both Pitt and Jolie were each paid $20 million for their roles.

  

• In 2005, he narrated the public television series “Rx for Survival,” discussing global health issues.

• His performance in Alejandro González Iñárritu’s psychological drama film Babel (2006) received critical praise. Brad later revealed in an interview that the decision to work in Babel was one of the best decisions of his career.

  

• He then played American outlaw Jesse James in the 2007 Western drama The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. He once called it his own favorite of his films.

  

• Brad Pitt is an active philanthropist. He has contributed to many social campaigns and organizations including “One Campaign,” an organization aimed at combating poverty and AIDS in the developing world.

• To aid humanitarian causes around the world, Brad and Jolie established a charitable organization, the “Jolie-Pitt Foundation,” in September 2006.

• In an interview in 2006, he said that he would marry only when same-sex marriage was legalized in the country.

• In 2006, Jolie requested a California Judge to change the children’s surnames from Jolie to Jolie-Pitt, which she was granted.

• Media gave the name “Brangelina fever” to the couple Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s relationship.

• When Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie flew to Namibia to give birth to their daughter “Shiloh,” the media described it as “the most anticipated baby since Jesus Christ.”

• In 2008, he played the protagonist in the film The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. The film received thirteen Academy Award nominations. According to Brad Pitt, it took five hours each day to complete the makeup required for the role.
  

• He then played Lieutenant Aldo Raine in Quentin Tarantino’s war film Inglourious Basterds (2009). The film won various awards and nominations including eight Academy Award nominations. It was the only movie Brad Pitt made as a leading actor for The Weinstein Company.

  

• In 2009, Brad Pitt teamed up with his siblings to donate $1 million to a Missouri hospital, where the first pediatric oncologist and hematologist were hired in the southwest Missouri region. The hospital has a wing named after their mother called the Jane Pitt Pediatric Cancer Center.

• He co-produced the 2013 biographical drama film 12 Years a Slave in which he played a small role. The film won three Academy Awards including Best Picture.

  

• Brad Pitt’s performance as Don “Wardaddy” Collier (tank commander) in David Ayer’s war drama film Fury (2014) earned him critical acclaim. He once talked about filming Fury and said,
  

  No rations, no showers, and we were sleeping in the rain. It was miserable, but we loved it.”
  

• In 2017, he acted in and produced the Netflix satirical war comedy War Machine.

• In the same year, he played a recurring role as a weatherman on the late-night talk show The Jim Jefferies Show.

• In 2019, he played a stunt double Cliff Booth in Quentin Tarantino’s comedy-drama film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood alongside Leonardo DiCaprio. The film earned him his first Academy Award in acting.
  

• He has appeared in commercials for various brands including Heineken, Acura Integra, SoftBank, and Edwin Jeans.

• During an interview in 2013, he revealed that he suffered from prosopagnosia (face blindness) for a long time.

• On 2 June 2015, a minor planet, 29132 Bradpitt, was named after him.

• In June 2022, he revealed that he quit smoking during the Covid-19 pandemic. He also revealed that he quit consuming alcohol six years ago (September 2016). He credits actor Bradley Cooper with helping him in quitting alcohol and smoking. He started smoking while he was in 6th grade.

• In an interview, he revealed that he heavily consumed cannabis in the late 1990s to deal with his increasing fame. He later overcame this habit after witnessing extreme poverty during a trip to Morocco.

• He is a supporter of the Democratic Party. He supported John Kerry in the 2004 US Presidential Election.

• He is a skilled pottery and sculpture artist, and his sculpture works were exhibited at the Sara Hildén Art Museum in Tampere, Finland in 2022-2023.

  

• He often talks about his loneliness. He once said,
  

  I always felt very alone in my life. I was always moving with the currents, drifting in a way, and onto the next. I think I spent years with a low-grade depression.”