Shepard, who has battled and overcome the same addiction, said during the podcast that he once met Pitt at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. Shepard was struck by how open the actor was to speaking with other attendees. “A bazillion famous people have come to this meeting, and everyone’s used to it,” said Shepard. “And then you came in. It was pretty overwhelming. I got a real sense of what your experience is in this way that I couldn’t really fathom: when you are in a place, everyone can’t stop thinking about you. And I was like, God, he has to be aware of that.” Pitt, for his part, added that at A.A. meetings, “everyone was so open. It gives you permission in a way to go, ‘okay, I’m gonna step out on this edge and see what happens.’ And then I really grew to love it..”
Pitt first spoke about his experience in Alcoholics Anonymous in a 2019 interview with The New York Times. At the time, the star explained, “I had taken things as far as I could take it, so I removed my drinking privileges.” On the brink of the abyss, Pitt decided to set aside the advice that he had been raised with—“I grew up with that be-capable, be-strong, don’t-show-weakness thing”—sought help from Alcoholics Anonymous, and joined a support group.
“You had all these men sitting around being open and honest in a way I have never heard,” Pitt said. “It was this safe space where there was little judgment, and therefore little judgment of yourself.” He found the experience invigorating: “It was actually really freeing just to expose the ugly sides of yourself. There’s great value in that.”
After eight years of very hard legal battles with Jolie, she and Pitt reached a divorce settlement at the end of 2024. (“I don’t think it was that major of a thing,” the Oscar winner told GQ. “Just something coming to fruition. Legally.”) Now he’s focused on F1, a film directed by Joseph Kosinski, hitting theater this weekend. At the film’s premiere, Pitt also received a nice surprise: a visit from Tom Cruise, who starred with Pitt in Interview with the Vampire decades ago.
Original story in VF Italy.