by Brad Pitt is undoubtedly one of the biggest movie stars in the world. With his classic good looks, undeniable talent, and decades-long career, he has reached a level of fame and success that most can only dream of. However, in various revealing interviews over recent years, Pitt has pulled back the curtain and exposed an ugly truth about life in the spotlight – that despite its glamour, fame is rotten at its core.
“It destroys you in a way,” Pitt confessed bluntly in a 2022 interview with GQ Magazine. “It eats away at you.” He revealed that the worst part of being famous is the loss of anonymity and normalcy. Simply going out for a cup of coffee becomes an impossibility when you’re immediately bombarded by stares, whispers, covert photos, and people interrupting. “I used to go out, but creating hysteria has become very common for me,” Pitt lamented. “It’s so unpleasant that I spend most of my time at home.”
So when he’s trapped in his gilded cage, finding privacy even behind closed doors becomes an issue. “I have a very famous face, so privacy is a thing of the past for me,” Pitt explained in an interview with Esquire. “I haven’t had anonymity for decades.” He revealed how troubling it is to lose the basic freedom of moving through the world without constant judgement and scrutiny trying to document your every movement.
This intense attention from the outside world fuels feelings of isolation. “In the 90s, it was crazy. I couldn’t leave the house. I spent years in my apartment and got incredibly isolated,” Pitt told the New York Times in 2019. Other times, he admitted that invasive cameras and questions make him lash out in anger – but those unfiltered moments then become scandalous headlines. “My words get overplayed and suddenly I’m the bad guy,” he told Interview Magazine last year. “I have to go hide.”
So while Pitt acknowledges that fame helped grant him “great opportunities that I would never experience otherwise in life,” like leveraging it for important causes he cares about, he concludes that ultimately, “fame is meaningless.” He told Esquire bluntly: “I know it keeps you from happiness, and that’s real.”
Perhaps the harshest indictment of fame from Pitt was recounting an incident that opened his eyes. In the late 90s, he took a long motorbike road trip across the country alone. He relished the joy, freedom and anonymity it gave him after feeling suffocated by fame. However, one night while camping alone in the woods, he awoke to discover that a small group of paparazzi had secretly tracked and watched him all night as he slept. “Fame is the worst thing in the world,” Pitt reflected. “It was a sad moment that made me feel lonely and profoundly isolated.”
So when Brad Pitt peels back the glossy facade of fame and success, he exposes an isolating existence plagued by anxiety, paranoia, judgment, lack of privacy, lack of authenticity, and ultimately – a loss of one’s soul. It’s a shocking warning to all those reaching for that glittering brass ring. Perhaps his most dire but simple advice about seeking fame?
