When Brad Pitt Admitted to Not Crying in 20 Years and Reconnecting to His Emotional Side

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie separated in 2016, the couple is still processing their ugly divorce. They share six children: Maddox, 18, Pax, 16, Zahara, 14, Shiloh, 13, and twins Knox and Vivienne, 11. Pitt opened up about becoming emotionally free in 2019 in an exclusive with his former Legends of the Fall costar Anthony Hopkins for Interview magazine. The Oceans Eleven actor revealed he is “quite famously a not-crier.” “Is that a term? I hadn’t cried in, like, 20, years, and now I find myself, at this latter stage, much more moved,” Pitt said. He continued, “Moved by my kids, moved by friends, moved by the news. Just moved.” Pitt expressed that being able to reconnect with his emotional side was "a good sign." 

“I don’t know where it’s going, but I think it’s a good sign,” he said. Pitt also admitted to Hopkins that he's "still wrestling" with guilt, but he didn't say for what reason. “I’m realizing, as a real act of forgiveness for myself for all the choices that I’ve made that I’m not proud of, that I value those missteps because they led to some wisdom, which led to something else,” Pitt said. He continued, “You can’t have one without the other. I see it as something I’m just now getting my arms around at this time in my life. But I certainly don’t feel like I can take credit for any of it.”

In another interview with NPR, the Ad Astra actor spoke about feeling accountable for his actions, "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."

Pitt also revealed that he eventually stopped drinking and began going to Alcoholics Anonymous meetings as a result of his divorce in an interview with The New York Times, "I had taken things as far as I could take it, so I removed my drinking privilege," he said before delving into his experiences in AA. "You had all these men sitting around being open and honest in a way I have never heard. It was this safe space where there was little judgment, and therefore little judgment of yourself. It was actually really freeing just to expose the ugly sides of yourself. There's great value in that."

In a 2022 interview with GQ Magazine, Pitt revealed that he is excited to live as he wants, “I consider myself on my last leg,” Pitt said, “this last semester or trimester. What is this section gonna be? And how do I wanna design that?” The Bullet Train actor also confessed to having quit smoking during the pandemic, “I don’t have that ability to do just one or two a day,” Pitt said. “It’s not in my makeup. I’m all in. And I’m going to drive into the ground. I’ve lost my privileges.”