Brad Pitt Revealed How His Divorce From Angelina Jolie Was Going to Influence His Acting Work
Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s relationship came to an end after Jolie filed for divorce in 2016. The end of their marriage took an emotional toll on both, with Pitt fully expecting their break-up to bleed into his work.
Brad Pitt felt he’d end up exploring his divorce with Angelina Jolie in his acting
Jolie cited irreconcilable differences with Pitt as the initial reason for the divorce. The two met each other on the set of Mr. and Mrs. Smith in 2004, and began dating in 2005. Still, it would’ve been a while in their relationship before the couple officially tied the knot.
“When someone asked me why Angie and I don’t get married, I replied, ‘Maybe we’ll get married when it’s legal for everyone else,’” Pitt once told Parade in 2009. “I stand by that, although I took a lot of flak for saying it — hate mail from religious groups.”
They eventually would officially marry in 2014 before their divorce two years later. Although it was a situation Pitt took partial responsibility for, he admitted that the split rocked his own ideas of fatherhood and masculinity.
“I’m much better at covering up. I grew up with a Father-knows-best/war mentality—the father is all-powerful, super strong—instead of really knowing the man and his own self-doubt and struggles. And it’s hit me smack in the face with our divorce: I gotta be more. I gotta be more for them. I have to show them. And I haven’t been great at it,” Pitt said in an interview with GQ.
Speaking to Weekend Edition, however, he was candid about using the impact of his divorce in his professional work.
“I would be exploring it whether there was a script that allowed that or not. A breakup of a family is certainly an eye-opener that as one — and I’m speaking in general again — but as one needs to understand, I had to understand my own culpability in that, and what can I do better. Because I don’t want to go on like this,” he said.
How the divorce impacted Angelina Jolie’s career
Jolie found her divorce from Pitt influencing her own work as well. As prominent as an actor Jolie is, she’s been steadily building up her portfolio as a director. Some of her filmmaking credits included A Place in Time, Unbroken, and By the Sea. But after divorcing Pitt, she began putting more focus on her acting career again.
“I love directing, but I had a change in my family situation that’s not made it possible for me to direct for a few years,” Jolie once told Entertainment Weekly. “I needed to just do shorter jobs and be home more, so I kind of went back to doing a few acting jobs. That’s really the truth of it.”
So far, Jolie hasn’t directed anything since 2017’s First They Killed My Father. Although she’s currently filming the movie Without Blood which has yet to have a release date.
It wasn’t easy for Jolie to call it off with Pitt, but she told The Guardian she felt doing so was necessary.
“I’m not the kind of person who makes decisions like the decisions I had to make lightly. It took a lot for me to be in a position where I felt I had to separate from the father of my children,” she said.
Angelina Jolie once named the 1 film that was ‘healing’ for her to star in
Recently, Jolie starred in the film Those Who Wish Me Dead, where she played a smoke jumper living with PTSD. The drama was exactly the kind of film Jolie needed at the time. It provided an outlet for her own emotional challenges.
“I am drawn to people who have been through something and are broken and then find their way forward and overcome it,” Jolie said to ET. “As an artist, it’s very healing to play people like that. She’s been very healing for me, because you just get so broken and then you stand back up.”
