Why Brad Pitt Believes Strippers Changed His Life
Brad Pitt is one of the world’s biggest superstars. He has appeared in a number of big-budget films as well as independent dramas and is often cited as one of the most attractive and influential actors in the industry.
Even though Pitt’s personal life has been the subject of intense speculation over the years, Pitt has always remained focused on his work, regularly turning in convincing, dynamic performances. Many of Pitt‘s fans might not know about the extent of his early work, before he got into the movie industry, including the one job that he says completely changed his life.
Where was Brad Pitt born?
Pitt was born into a normal, middle-class family. He was born in Shawnee, Oklahoma, in 1963, but his family relocated to Springfield, Missouri when he was still very young.
Pitt’s father worked as the owner of a successful trucking company, while his mother was a school counselor. While in high school, Pitt got involved in a variety of student athletic programs, including swimming, golf, and tennis. He was also active in the arts, and got some early experience on stage, acting in some school productions.
In 1982, Pitt began attending the University of Missouri, with a concentration in journalism and advertising. Although Pitt was a good student, he did not settle well into college life and found himself bitten by the acting bug. Only several weeks short of receiving his degree, Pitt decided to relocate to California and pursue a career in the movie industry.
Brad Pitt’s early jobs
Although Pitt was inspired to start working in movies, he didn’t exactly have the easiest transition into the industry. Upon his move to LA, Pitt had only a few hundred dollars to his name and found himself forced to work a variety of odd jobs in order to make ends meet.
Some of his early gigs included working as a furniture mover and dressing up as a chicken for the restaurant chain “El Pollo Loco.” It was during one of these early jobs that he had an encounter with someone who would change the course of his future.
As Pitt revealed in a 2008 acting round-table discussion, he actually worked as a limo driver for strippers for a brief period of time. Pitt’s job included driving the strippers to and from appointments, and although he enjoyed the job at first, he quickly found it “depressing” and decided to quit after two months. However, Pitt’s boss convinced him to take one last gig, to which he reluctantly agreed.
While driving the strippers to their appointment, Pitt struck up a conversation with one girl, who told him about an acting class that she was involved in. Pitt decided to enroll in the classes, which he admitted altered the course of his career, and put him in touch with industry experts. In that way, he revealed, strippers truly changed his life.
Brad Pitt is now a world-famous actor
Once Pitt enrolled in acting classes, he found more opportunities opening up for him. In the late eighties, he started landing parts in various television shows, including Another World and Dallas.
Pitt’s first big break came in 1991 when he scored a small role in the movie Thelma & Louise. Critics and fans went crazy for Pitt’s natural charm and good looks and the film opened the door for many more major film opportunities.
These days, Brad Pitt is one of the most successful actors of all time, with films like Legends of the Fall, World War Z, Fight Club, and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood to his credit. Fans can’t imagine what the movie business would look like without Pitt’s influence — and it might never have happened at all, if not for his early job, shuttling strippers around.
