What not many people know about the superstar

Brad Pitt turns 60 - What not many people know about the superstar

Superstar Brad Pitt is turning 60 and much of the actor's private and professional life is well known to the public. But many may not know the following six details.

Brad Pitt was a member of Alcoholics Anonymous for a long time

Brad Pitt's second wife Angelina Jolie (48) filed for divorce in September 2016 after the star allegedly became violent during a flight from France to Los Angeles. What exactly happened on board the private plane has been disputed between the ex-spouses ever since. Even the FBI investigated, but no charges were ever filed.

But that same month, Pitt began attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. "I had gone as far as I could, so I took away my own drinking privileges," the star revealed to the New York Times a few years later.

According to Pitt, the meetings he attended for the following year and a half helped him a lot. "All these men sat there and were open and honest in a way I hadn't been before." It was "liberating" for him to reveal his "ugly side" to this group. Surprisingly, none of the other therapy participants sold or otherwise divulged the Hollywood star's certainly very private stories to the tabloid press.

Brad Pitt doesn't particularly like his blockbuster "Troy"

The epic historical film "Troy" by German director Wolfgang Petersen (1941-2022) is one of Pitt's most financially successful works, with worldwide box office takings of almost 500 million US dollars. However, the star himself does not seem to like the film, in which he plays the ancient legendary hero Achilles, very much.

In the blockbuster about the siege of Troy by a Greek army under King Agamemnon (Brian Cox, 77), Pitt said he had to act in the film because he had an obligation to the film studio Warner Bros. "The way the movie was told was not the way I wanted it to be [...]. I couldn't get out of the middle of the picture frame. It drove me crazy [...]. Every shot said, 'Here's the hero.' There was no mystery," Pitt revealed in an interview with The New York Times.

To make matters worse, the star injured his Achilles tendon during filming, which brought production to a halt for several weeks. This is not without a certain irony, as the legendary hero Achilles, whom he portrayed, was only vulnerable in his Achilles heel.

Brad Pitt is also extremely successful as a film producer

Brad Pitt, the actor, is one of the biggest stars on the planet - if not the biggest. But as a film producer, the 60-year-old can also boast some impressive successes. His production company Plan B Entertainment, founded in 2001 - at the time with ex-wife Jennifer Aniston (54) - co-produced the hit films "Departed" with Leonardo DiCaprio (49), the slavery drama "12 Years a Slave" and "Moonlight" - renowned works that all won the Oscar for "Best Film" of the year at the Academy Awards.

The production Oscar for "12 Years a Slave" even counts as Pitt's personal Oscar triumph - thanks to the complicated rules of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. As a result, the star has won two Academy Awards in his illustrious career. One as a producer, the other as "Best Supporting Actor" for "Once Upon a Time In... Hollywood".

"As a producer, you're part of a team that brings the story to the screen," Pitt revealed to Interview Magazine in 2012, adding, "It wouldn't be on the screen if you and a group of people weren't committed to it. I like that." It sounds as if Pitt has found a kind of second vocation within the film industry here - alongside acting.

Brad Pitt sacrificed his front teeth for "Fight Club"

In David Fincher's (61) cult classic "Fight Club" from 1999, Pitt plays the extremely rowdy character Tyler Durden, who famously fights with many other men in the so-called Fight Club. In order to portray Durden as convincingly as possible on screen, the actor voluntarily had his front teeth chipped by his dentist.

This made Durden look like a real street fighter in the completed movie. "Brad is prepared to go to great lengths for a character," his publicist Cindy Guagenti revealed to "Entertainment Weekly" in the summer of 1998. After filming, the star naturally had his front teeth repaired.

Strippers have changed Brad Pitt's life

In a video available on YouTube, Brad Pitt describes how he first tried to gain a foothold in the film metropolis of Los Angeles as a young man. During this period, the current Hollywood star worked for two months as a chauffeur for nude dancers and strippers.

He drove the ladies to events such as bachelor parties, where he played "bad Prince tapes" and picked up the discarded clothes. The whole atmosphere around the job became "very, very depressing" after a while, according to Pitt, but one of the dancers is said to have recommended an acting course with the now deceased acting teacher Roy London during his last driving job, who became a kind of mentor to Pitt in the years that followed. This set the course for his later international career. That's why the star summarizes: "Strippers changed my life."

Pitt's unusual favorite film

Not many of the star's fans will have seen "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford". Although Pitt received the "Best Actor" award at the 64th Venice International Film Festival in 2007 for his performance in the quiet western drama, the film by "Blond" director Andrew Dominik (56) only made 15 million US dollars at the global box office - with a reported production budget of 30 million dollars.

This is no comparison at all to Pitt's highest-grossing blockbusters such as "Troy", "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" or "World War Z", which all generated box office takings of around 500 million US dollars.

Nevertheless, the likeable Hollywood star says that his rare movie flop is his favorite of all his works. "I can always produce hits. My favorite movie is the worst performing out of all the ones I've ever done, 'The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford'. When I think something is significant, I know its time will come," Pitt told "GQ" in 2017.