“I just saw it as a disservice to myself, as an escape,” Pitt said about his addiction.
Ad Astra star Brad Pitt discussed sobriety with the legendary actor Anthony Hopkins for Interview magazine.
Lessons Learned
“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 explained. “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.”
Hopkins, who has been sober for decades, asked Pitt about his reported struggle with alcohol.
“Well, I just saw it as a disservice to myself, as an escape,” Pitt said.
“It was necessary,” Hopkins added. “It’s a gift. I myself needed to hide it, years ago.”
Hopkins and Pitt have worked together on 1994’s Legend of the Fall and 1998’s Meet Joe Black. Duing their time working on Black, Hopkins talked about leaving alcohol behind in favor of sobriety.
44 Years Sober
Hopkins is nearly 45 years sober nowadays, something he keeps in mind but tries not to get “evangelical” about it. He explained his outlook on living with addiction to Pitt.
“I look at it, and I think, ‘What a great blessing that was, because it was painful.’ I did some bad things. But it was all for a reason, in a way. And it’s strange to look back and think, ‘God, I did all those things?’ But it’s like there’s an inner voice that says, ‘It’s over. Done. Move on,’” Hopkin said.
“So you’re embracing all your mistakes. You’re saying, “Let’s be our foibles, our embarrassment. There’s beauty in that,” Pitt noted. ” I’m seeing that these days. I think we’re living in a time where we’re extremely judgmental and quick to treat people as disposable. We’ve always placed great importance on the mistake. But the next move, what you do after the mistake, is what really defines a person. We’re all going to make mistakes. But what is that next step? We don’t, as a culture, seem to stick around to see what that person’s next step is. And that’s the part I find so much more invigorating and interesting.”
Pitt spoke about his sobriety in an interview with GQ Style in 2017. The Fight Club actor said that at the peak of his heavy drinking, he could “drink a Russian under the table with his own vodka. I was a professional. I was good.”
