The man with seemingly everything needed sobriety to get back on track.
“I had taken things as far as I could take it, so I removed my drinking privileges.” — Brad Pitt
When you think about all the various Hollywood celebrities who appear to have everything you could ever want, I’m sure the name Brad Pitt comes to mind every now and then.
He’s the quintessential “guy’s guy” in that (as the famous saying goes) men want to be him and women want to be with him.
He married two of the most beautiful women in the world in Jennifer Aniston and Angelina Jolie and was engaged to a third in Gwyneth Paltrow.
He has acted in some of the biggest movies of all time and is part of the upper echelon as it relates to Hollywood stars, as he boasts a friend group of George Clooney, Matt Damon, and Leonardo DiCaprio.
With all the great things going on in his life, there was still one thing that was leading him down a path to destruction that he had somewhat secretly been battling a long time.
Alcohol.
The enemy disguised as a friend had been something that Brad had appeared to have kept under control for some time, and it was only after his filing of divorce from Angelina Jolie that this culprit revealed itself for what it was.
Therefore, he had to make a decision whether he was going to continue to spiral and let alcohol ruin his life or face his demons and get clean.
He chose the latter and had a few good reasons for doing so.
For his children
The straw that broke the camel’s back for Brad Pitt was an incident that occurred on a plane in 2016 with his then 15-year-old son, Maddox.
Although Brad was not charged with any wrongdoing in the situation, this incident was enough for Angelina to make the decision that the marriage was over, and it was clear that alcohol was involved.
Brad had made the decision some years earlier when he and Angelina starting having kids that he would cut out many of the other recreational drugs in which he had partaken for most of his life, everything except alcohol.
“I can’t remember a day since I got out of college when I wasn’t boozing or had a spliff or something. Something.”
Brad was a pretty hardcore marijuana user for some time and decided that he had to really get clean when he and Angelina started to have kids because he said as a father, “you want to be alert.”
While this decision allowed him to hide his demons for some time and be a better person and decent father, he recognized that there were still parts of himself that he truly wasn’t facing that were holding him back from becoming the best version of himself possible.
When referring to how much more now he is in touch with his true emotions and feelings and is able to deal with them instead of hiding in a bottle, something he referred to as a “pacifier,” he said,
“…I’ve got my feelings in my fingertips again. I think that’s part of the human challenge: You either deny them all of your life or you answer them and evolve.”
Brad’s incident with Maddox on that plane was not only the final straw that broke his marriage, but it was also his own personal wake-up call that if he didn’t want to lose everything in life, he would have to be willing to give up alcohol as well.
He made a decision shortly afterward to join alcoholics anonymous and allow himself the opportunity to truly get himself to a place in which he could be a better father to his kids and person in life.
And while it has been reported that Brad’s relationship with Maddox is still a bit strained, he is hopeful that it will be fixed one day and has still maintained a good relationship with the other five.
For his career and future
While no one is arguing that Brad’s career has taken a major downswing, as he has consistently continued to act in and produce hit after hit on the big screen, there is the warning that this could have happened.
As we have seen with a number of actors who have had a bout or two with substance abuse, this can turn ugly fast if you’re not careful.
Based on what we’ve seen in the past from actors such as Robert Downey Jr, and Ben Affleck, alcohol and addiction have the ability to not only damage your personal life but can also hurt your career as well.
Robert Downey was infamously in and out of rehab and jailed numerous times after an exceedingly successful start to his acting career.
He served 12 months of a 36-month prison sentence for a number of reckless incidents that took place over a number of years and then had to have his wife leave him and get fired from Ally McBeal before finally being able to face the truth that he could not continue in this manner.
Ben Affleck’s journey did not quite land him in jail, but he did lose his marriage to Jennifer Garner also and saw a dip in his draw as a Hollywood draw similar to Downey.
While battling his sobriety and going through his somewhat public divorce from Jennifer Garner, he had to remove himself as the director of The Batman because he felt he wasn’t where he needed to be to handle both sides of the camera saying,
“It has become clear that I cannot do both jobs to the level they require.”
In the same vein, Brad Pit had to take a bit of a break from acting altogether to get his life back on track.
With the success of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and Oscar-producing success of one of his most recent films, Minari, it does appear he is back on track and working hard to keep it that way.
He shared and confirmed this sentiment while receiving a reward for his performance in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood by thanking his friend and also well-known beater of addiction, Bradley Cooper, with his now-famous quote,
“I got sober because of this guy, and every day has been happier since.”