Three years after he and Angelina Jolie split, Brad Pitt admitted that he tried to ‘escape’ his ‘mistakes’ by abusing alcohol. Now, he says he’s learned to accept his ‘embarrassments’ and stay sober.
“I’ve read you had a struggle with booze and all that,” Anthony Hopkins, 81, said to Brad Pitt, 55, during their conversation for Interview magazine. The Once Upon a Time In Hollywood star — who has opened up about his history of alcohol abuse following his split from Angelina Jolie — admitted that he was using the bottle as a crutch. “Well, I just saw it as a disservice to myself, as an escape,” said Brad. When asked if it was “necessary” for him to have that “escape,” he admitted, “to some degree, yes.”
“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,” said Brad in the Interview chat. “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. But I certainly don’t feel like I can take credit for any of it.” He also stressed the positivity in accepting his flaws. “So you’re embracing all your mistakes. You’re saying, “Let’s be our foibles, our embarrassment. There’s beauty in that.’ ”
“I’m seeing that these days,” Brad told Anthony. “I think we’re living in a time where we’re extremely judgmental and quick to treat people as disposable. We’ve always placed great importance on the mistake. But the next move, what you do after the mistake, is what really defines a person. We’re all going to make mistakes. But what is that next step? We don’t, as a culture, seem to stick around to see what that person’s next step is. And that’s the part I find so much more invigorating and interesting.”
Brad told The New York Times in September that after Angelina Jolie filed for divorce in 2016, he spent nearly two years “freeing” himself from drugs and alcohol. “I had taken things as far as I could take it, so I removed my drinking privileges,” he told the Times. He spent a year and a half in Alcoholics Anonymous, attending meetings where he would open up about his problems. “You had all these men sitting around being open and honest in a way I have never heard. It was this safe space where there was little judgment, and therefore little judgment of yourself.”
“It was actually really freeing just to expose the ugly sides of yourself,” he added. “There’s great value in that.” Brad and Angie’s 12-year relationship came to a halt three years ago, and there were reports that the final straw came after an alleged fight over his drinking. He previously said he quit in 2017, telling GQ that he personally couldn’t remember a day “since I got out of college when I wasn’t boozing or had a spliff, or something.” He said that drugs, cigarettes, and alcohol were “pacifiers” to him and that he was ultimately “running from [his] feelings.”
Sourse: hollywoodlife.com
