Brad Pitt is opening up about his childhood.
W Magazine sat down with 56-year-old Pitt as part of a series of interviews with actors and actresses who are hailed as having the best movie performances of 2019 and he gamely talked about a few of his formative experiences growing up. In the candid video, Pitt tells the story of his first kiss, which happened when he was in the fourth grade with a girl named Lisa.
“It was in her garage. Fourth grade,” he recalls. “She was one street over, and I ran home afterward. I was pretty excited, titillated as fourth graders get. It was kind of planned, it was kind of set up — OK, we’re going to meet here, we’re going to do this. The anticipation was a bit nerve-wracking. Got there, did the deal, and somehow, I just remember running home. It was just too much.”
“I always had crushes,” he adds. “I had crushes in kindergarten, first grade, second grade. I had crushes. I always had crushes.”
When the interviewer interjects, “Because you’re passionate,” Pitt replies with a smirk, “Because I’m addicted.”
Later, he shows off his signature dance move from the ’80s from when he attended two proms in high school since the girl he was dating at the time was from a neighbouring high school. The “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” star says he wore a white tuxedo with tails.
“I realize that was kind of my training. Like, dance, the ’80s dance,” he jokes, snapping his fingers with a laugh. “And it never really evolved from there, and then I had a 20-year hiatus where I didn’t dance at all, and now I kind of see dance as my future. So, trying to catch up. I’ll be throwing s**t out of joint and dislocating things, but yeah, I don’t know, I see more dance in my future.”
As for the first album he ever bought, he says it was Elton John’s Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy, which came out in 1975.
“My earliest memory is Captain Fantastic, that was my favourite album,” he shares. “But it could have been something like [John’s] Madman Across the Water. Also, Three Dog Night was somewhere in there, Fleetwood Mac.”
Pitt admits he had the rock star fantasy but says it obviously wasn’t going to happen for him.
“Oh sure, but I couldn’t sing for, you know, sh*t,” he says. “And I couldn’t play anything so, you know, had to go for the next best thing.”
Pitt later talks about playing the role of Cliff Booth in Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”. He’s been getting rave reviews for his role as a stunt man during Hollywood’s golden age, receiving the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture on Sunday.
“Just where I am in life, I was just really drawn to him,” he says of the role. “I love what Quentin had written, it was a guy who is pretty at peace with his place in life, knew what he was dedicated to, knew what he was not dedicated to, looked for the best in people but was not surprised to get the worst in people. I could relate to that.”
“And he gets to drive through to L.A. in a really cool car,” he adds with a smile. “But you know that comes with a Tarantino movie. You’re going to get a cool car, you’re not going to get a sh*tbox.”