Brad Pitt is considered one Hollywood’s most attractive men – but he’s not just a pretty face! He has received four Academy Award nominations, as well as five Golden Globe nominations and he’s taken home one Golden Globe Award for his performance in 12 Monkeys. He’s also dated some of Hollywood’s most beautiful actresses like Gwyneth Paltrow, Jennifer Aniston, and Angelina Jolie. Since he’s been one of the biggest names in Hollywood for several decades now, we’ve created a list of some things you didn’t know about the world-renowned star:
10. Humble Beginnings
William Bradley Pitt was born on December 18, 1963, to William Alvin Pitt, who ran a trucking company, and Jane Etta, who was a school counselor. Although he was born in Shawnee, Oklahoma, his family moved where he and his three younger siblings – Douglas and Julie – were raised in Springfield, Missouri.
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9. On a Whim
After high school, Pitt enrolled at the University of Missouri where he was majoring in Journalism with a focus on advertising. He was in his last semester of school when he started to feel restless. He didn’t think he was ready to settle down and he wanted to try his hand at acting so, two weeks before graduating, he packed up his car and drove to Los Angeles to pursue his dream.
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8. Self-Employed
On forms, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button star does not list his job as an actor. Instead, he lists his occupation as self-employed. “I learned that from Bruce Paltrow,” he told Esquire. “I always liked it. It’s a humble way to describe what we do.” If a stranger asks him what he does for a living on a plane, he usually responds with, “This and that” and “I’m a dad just like you.”
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7. Depressive Phase
According to the Oscar-nominated actor, he went through a depressive stage in the late ‘90s where he was wallowing in self-loathing and was soothing himself with marijuana. “I was hiding out from the celebrity thing; I was smoking way too much dope; I was sitting on the couch and just turning into a doughnut; and I really got irritated with myself,” he told The Hollywood Reporter. It took a trip to Morocco that showed him the depths of real human suffering to help get out of his depression and get him to stop smoking dope. “I just quit. I stopped grass then – I mean, pretty much – and decided to get off the couch,” he said.
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6. Odd Jobs
When The Tree of Life actor first moved to L.A., he spent several months working as a limousine driver, chauffeuring strippers from one bachelor party to the next. He also had a job delivering refrigerators and another one where he had to dress up in a chicken suit to lure customers into an El Pollo Loco restaurant in Hollywood.
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5. Dallas Buyers Club
Back in 2002, the Golden Globe-winning actor was going to play Ron Woodroof in Dallas Buyers Club but, at the time, no one was interested in financing a film about a guy who dies of AIDS. Woody Harrelson was attached to the film before Pitt and afterward, Ryan Gosling was in talks to play the role, but it fell through. In 2009, Matthew McConaughey was cast and in 2014 he won an Oscar for his performance in the film.
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4. Banned from China
After starring in the film Seven Years in Tibet, Pitt was banned from entering China because the Chinese government disapproved of the film’s harsh portrayal of Chinese rule in Tibet. Pitt wasn’t the only one from the film who was banned. The director Jean-Jacques Annaud and actor David Thewlis were also banned from entering the country. As of 2016, however, the ban seems to be over. Pitt made a stop in Shanghai to promote his movie, Allied.
Everett Collection
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3. Prankster
Like his friend George Clooney, the Fight Club actor loves a good prank. While filming Ocean’s Eleven, he convinced Italian shopkeepers to refer to Clooney as his character in the film, Danny Ocean, and on a private with his manager, Cynthia Pett, he pranked her by drawing a penis and a pair of balls on her face with Sharpie after she fell asleep.
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2. Psychiatric Ward
For his role as a mental patient in Twelve Monkeys, the handsome actor checked himself into a psychiatric ward in Philadelphia for a day for research purposes. For his performance, Pitt was nominated for an Academy Award and Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor and he won the Golden Globe!
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1. Too Handsome
Back in 2002, Toyota Altis ads featuring Pitt were banned in Malaysia after the country’s deputy information minister, Zainuddin Maidin, ruled that Pitt’s good looks would make Malaysian men feel inferior! “Why must we use their faces in our advertisements? Aren’t our own people handsome enough?” Maidin said to the Guardian. “We barred the advertisement as it appeared as a humiliation against Asians.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEsJ0J_gmbk