Brad Pitt opens up about his alcoholism: "I was practically on my knees."

BarcelonaTraditionally, Hollywood has sought to hide from the general public all those issues about its actors and actresses that might make them seem like human beings rather than gods. Now, however, the tables have turned, and the industry is increasingly less restricting its stars from revealing certain aspects of their real lives, even though this may generate some media controversy. In the face of a more empathetic society, which judges them less for being human, some of the greatest icons of the Mecca of cinema are increasingly daring to show the wounds life has left them, which sends a beneficial message to all of us because, subjugated to idolatry as we are, it doesn't occur to us as well if it automatically occurs to them that we automatically think of ...

One of the last to open up to the general public about one of the biggest problems of his life has been Brad Pitt, who, after 40 years permanently on screen and now 61, has spoken openly about the serious alcohol addiction he suffered until not long ago. In a US podcast hosted by actor Dax Shepard, Pitt explained very intimate emotional details about his state of mind when he started attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, where he met Shepard. "My first day [at Alcoholics Anonymous] was my first day sober and I think it was simply incredible. We were men sharing experiences, mistakes, setbacks, needs, and a great sense of humor," the actor recalled about his first time there. In fact, as he explains, the experience was so positive that he wanted to do it again: "Something I was looking forward to came back."

"I was in charge"

Although when he arrived, he says he was "practically on my knees and very vulnerable" because he had already "tried everything," he says he felt calm and was able to overcome his shyness when it came to opening up about his experience. "I had tried everything they offered me before going. It was a difficult time," he recalls about joining the group. Soon after, he explains that he began to take responsibility for what had been happening to him in relation to alcohol: "I realized that I had become responsible for my problem. I'm very good at taking responsibility for things. That helped me take control of the situation and made it like a mission now, you know?" "It's like: 'Now what do I do with this? How can I fix it? And what can I do to prevent it from happening again?'" reflects the artist, from whom Angelina Jolie officially filed for divorce in 2021, largely due to the consequences of this problem.

It was after his time in Alcoholics Anonymous, Pitt says, that he began doing solitary therapy, where he claims he initially practiced self-pity, something he later changed. "When I've gotten into trouble, I'm pretty good at taking responsibility and facing the facts. Now I ask myself, 'How can I fix a problem and make sure it doesn't happen again?'" reveals the actor, who is now completely estranged from the six children he shared with Jolie, most of whom have dropped their surnames as a matter of course.

In a family sense?

It's hard to believe that some of the messages Pitt communicates in this interview can't also be interpreted as internal family issues. Now that so much distance has been created between him and his children, it can't be ruled out that this is one of the few ways the actor can go about secretly apologizing to children who want nothing to do with him. Because if one thing hasn't changed in Hollywood over the decades, it's that the blending of public and private lives of its stars in their public lives has never disappeared. This was the case when Jane Fonda and her father—with whom she had so many disagreements...—filmed Where golden pond in 1981 and it's the same now as it was then. The only difference is that the place where everything was mixed before was a film, while now it's a podcast.

Having said all that, we shouldn't complacently be carried away by the image of a supposedly new era of Hollywood. The truth is that if some stars now talk about problems they would have previously hidden, it's also because they can't hide them. In the empire of mobile phones and social media, escaping constant public scrutiny is impossible. Especially if the media no longer works in favor of the work. The magazines and newspapers that published lives fabricated by artists' representatives in agreement with journalists in exchange for favors from the stars are a long way off. The bought media have practically ended, which has coincided with networks eager for fresh meat every second. It's normal, then, that in this situation, celebrities have decided to take advantage, in one way or another, of their saddest circumstances, which they know they will not be able to hide in any way.

Repositioning

If we add to all this that the bad press that Brad Pitt had with his divorce needed to be counteracted in order to remain at the top of the royal hierarchy mass media, it's clear that this moment of confession had to come. In fact, he's already spilled some beans along these lines in the past, but the public exorcism he needs is big enough to entail long-term work. Killing the old, tainted Brad and replacing him in our minds with a self-aware, empathetic, and responsible one isn't a task that can be done in two days. Perhaps that's why he's decided to make a change of heart in the process. look which has gone from a very traditional and canonical Hollywood elegance to avant-garde and slightly agender who seem to want to put him in the crosshairs of some LGBTIQ+ minorities and of Generation Z, to which his children belong, by the way.

But waiting to know if this rebranding takes its toll on his public profile and the personal and family problems caused by alcoholism, we'll have to stick with a sad line of analysis that we haven't yet discussed. All this catharsis that Pitt is doing in front of the media coincides with the promotion of his new film, F1, in which he participates, among others, with Javier Bardem and that has cost the producers 300 million dollars. It's a shame that the sad capitalist reality always ends up coming to discredit what seemed like an honest act, making us think that such a sincere confession was perhaps just a claim to generate empathy and sell more movie tickets for the film in question. Having said all that, ifspeech Pitt's work helps someone start on the road to healing, it will have been worth the media hype.