Brad Pitt has been telling GQ about the last “season” of his career – and whether it involves much acting at all…
In a 2022 chat with GQ, a certain star of Deadpool 2 (2018), The Lost City (2022) and Johnny Swede (1991) suggested his acting days might be coming to an end.
“I consider myself on my last leg,” he said, to coincide with a particularly garish cover photo shoot. “This last semester or trimester. What is this section gonna be? And how do I wanna design that?”
Now, in a new interview alongside Wolfs co-star George Clooney, the actor-producer is revisiting the topic – though it sounds less finalistic than his old statements might imply.
“I meant that as seasons,” Pitt explained. “You know, there was moving out from the safety of the Ozarks. You embark on this thing and it’s all about discovery and it’s really exciting and interesting and painful and awful and all of it. And then when you’re allowed into the big leagues, it becomes another game of responsibilities and things to answer to…”
“And then this time now. It’s: What are these last years going to be? Because I see my parents are very… In your 80s, the body becomes more frail. And yet I look at Frank Gehry. He’s just the loveliest man. And he’s 95 and still making great art and he’s got a beautiful family. And I think that’s kind of the formula to stay creative and keep loving your life.”
It’s true that Pitt does seem to have put the brakes on his acting career in favour of producing over the last few years with credits on projects as diverse as Oscar-winning Women Talking and Netflix sci-fi series The Three Body Problem. But with starring roles in Bullet Train, Babylon and now action-comedy two-hander Wolfs, he still doesn’t seem ready to hang up his acting hat just yet.
As co-star George Clooney said, two of the biggest stars of the 90s seem to be viewing their respective careers as being in a more transitional phase than anything else.
“The phone stops ringing if your decision is that you want to continue to be the character that you were when you were 35, and you want a softer lens,” Clooney explained. “But if you’re willing to, say, move down the call sheet a little bit and do interesting character work, then you can kind of… you have to make peace with the idea that you’re going to die!”
To summarise, then: Brad Pitt is ageing like everybody else. More on the inevitable passage of time when we have it…
