Brad Pitt Gets Honest About Alcoholism and Past Mistakes
Written by SOURCE on December 3, 2019
Brad Pitt is continuing to get candid about his struggle with alcoholism. He and Anthony Hopkins shared the screen in Legends of the Fall and Meet Joe Black, and they reconnected for a conversation with Interview magazine. During their discussion, Pitt explained to Hopkins that he’s “still wrestling” with not bearing the burden of his past mistakes.
“I’m realizing, as a real act of forgiveness for myself for all the choices that I’ve made that I’m not proud of, that I value those missteps, because they led to some wisdom, which led to something else,” Pitt said. “You can’t have one without the other. I see it as something I’m just now getting my arms around at this time in my life.”
In May 2017, Pitt revealed to GQ Style that he had quit drinking because he didn’t “want to live that way anymore.” “I was boozing too much,” Pitt said then. “It’s just become a problem. And I’m really happy it’s been half a year now, which is bittersweet, but I’ve got my feelings in my fingertips again.”
Pitt echoed these sentiments to Hopkins, telling the 81-year-old actor in Interview that he saw drinking as a “disservice to myself” and “an escape.” Hopkins—who also battled alcoholism—told Pitt he has a gift that he “needed to hide” with alcohol. Now, Hopkins embraces his mistakes and urged Pitt to do the same.
“I look at it, and I think, ‘What a great blessing that was, because it was painful.’ I did some bad things. But it was all for a reason, in a way,” Hopkins told Pitt. “And it’s strange to look back and think, ‘God, I did all those things?’ But it’s like there’s an inner voice that says, ‘It’s over. Done. Move on.'”
Pitt went on to tell Hopkins that the combination of his sober life and age has made the 55-year-old more “more moved” emotionally. Still, Pitt admitted he hasn’t cried in nearly 20 years. This is something that Hopkins assured him will change.
“I am quite famously a not-crier. Is that a term? I hadn’t cried in, like, 20 years, and now I find myself, at this latter stage, much more moved—moved by my kids, moved by friends, moved by the news. Just moved. I think it’s a good sign,” Pitt said.
Hopkins replied, “You’ll find, as you get older, that you just want to weep… It’s not even about grief. It’s about the glory of life.”
