One of my biggest theories about Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s 2016 split is that Pitt was blackout drunk on the plane and he has no memory of how he violently terrorized Angelina and their six kids for hours. Both Angelina and Brad have said or indicated that he was drinking on the plane, but if he was blackout drunk, it would explain some of what Pitt did afterward, as he desperately tried to contain the story (without even remembering what he did) and how he STILL blames Angelina for leaving him (without ever acknowledging that she had every right to protect herself and the kids). Why am I bringing this up? Because Pitt appeared on Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard, who has spoken about his alcoholism and sobriety journey for many years. Apparently, Dax and Brad met in an AA meeting?
Brad Pitt is opening up about his experience with Alcoholics Anonymous. The 61-year-old Oscar winner opened up about the experience on the Monday, June 23 episode of Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard. The two actors also spoke about getting to know one another in an AA meeting.
Pitt called AA an “amazing thing,” noting, “I just thought it was just incredible men sharing their experiences, their foibles, their missteps, their wants, their aches, and a lot of humor with it. I thought it was a really special experience.”
Shepard, 50, who has been very open about his struggles with substance abuse and sobriety, wondered if Pitt was “nervous” to speak with him publicly after they met in AA, noting the “really heightened honesty and vulnerability” of the situation.
But Pitt assured him that he was, “Quite at ease.”
Pitt also shared that while he was a bit “shy” coming into the AA group, he also didn’t hesitate to open up because of how low he was at that time.
“I was pretty much on my knees, and I was really open,” he told Shepard. “I was trying anything and everyone. Anything anyone threw at me. It was a difficult time. I needed rebooting. I needed to wake the f— up in some areas. And it just meant a lot to me.”
As well as referring to himself as a “stubborn f—,” Pitt also noted some of his more positive qualities.
“When I’ve stepped in s—, I’m pretty good at taking responsibility for it and owning up to it. And now it’s a quest to, you know, ‘What do I do with this? How can I [right] this?’ And make sure it doesn’t happen again.” Pitt said that after a few sessions, AA meetings became “something I’d look forward to.”
The F1 star added that he approached therapy with a similar openness, saying, “When I jumped into therapy then, I was just like, ‘And I did this and I did that and da da da da,’ “ calling his approach “desperate.”
I’ve been covering this saga long enough to remember that Pitt apparently refused to go to a traditional rehab facility back in 2016, and he did some kind of makeshift, home-based drying out, at least that’s what we were led to believe. Sobriety is sobriety and I’m not minimizing Brad’s sobriety, if he actually is sober (we have no way of knowing but I doubt it). He’s purposefully trying to make it sound like he’s been working a program this whole time and he just hasn’t. I don’t even believe he regularly goes to AA meetings. And even then, this is probably his biggest f–king lie: “When I’ve stepped in s—, I’m pretty good at taking responsibility for it and owning up to it.” Brad Pitt? Taking responsibility? Where? When?
Photos courtesy of Cover Images, Backgrid.
