Brad Pitt turns 60 – and gets into a Formula 1 car

Brad Pitt turns 60 on Monday – and peace has returned to his life, at least partially, after the publicly fought War of the Roses with Angelina Jolie.

Pitt, who celebrates a milestone birthday this December 18th, is playing the lead role in a new film about Formula 1. In the planned action spectacle directed by Joseph Kosinski (“Top Gun: Maverick”), Pitt plays a racing driver – Veteran who returns from retirement to fight together with a young driver (Damson Idris). Formula 1-Elite to compete.

Filming of the film, the title of which is not yet known, had already started in early summer, but then the months-long film slowed down Hollywood-Strike production. But they would continue filming next year, revealed Formula 1 record world champion Lewis Hamilton at the Grand Prix in Las Vegas in mid-November. The 38-year-old Mercedes driver is a consultant and co-producer on the film.

Pitt accelerated on the Silverstone race track in July. A separate garage was set up there for the fictitious racing team around the superstar. “It’s great to be here,” he said Oscar-Prize winner at the time from the broadcaster Sky Sports. “I’m having the time of my life here.” Hamilton pushed aside doubts as to whether a soon-to-be 60-year-old could appear authentic as a Formula 1 driver. “He looks like he’s aging backwards. He’s super fit,” said the seven-time champion of the Hollywood star.

Ten years ago, shortly before his 50th birthday, Pitt made headlines with wedding rumors. After almost ten years of dating and more than two years of engagement, Pitt and Angelina Jolie tied the knot in August 2014 at their Château Miraval winery on the Côte d’Azur. They met on the set of the film “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” and played married undercover killers.

“Brangelina” has long been a brand name for an almost perfect relationship, career and extended family. The parents of six children, three biological and three adopted, were among the top earners in the film industry and also supported social and humanitarian causes worldwide.

But the marriage ended in autumn 2016. Jolie filed for divorce. She accused Pitt of physical violence towards her and the children. Disputes over custody and finances followed.

Brad Pitt is now avoiding alcohol

Eight months after the surprising separation, Pitt spoke publicly for the first time about the failed relationship and his life afterwards. In an interview with the US magazine “GQ Style”, the actor said that he is in therapy and is staying away from alcohol. Pitt admits in the long and very personal interview that he drank too much beforehand and was responsible for many of the problems himself. He now wants to lead a healthier life and spend more time with his children.

He himself grew up in the Midwest of the USA as the eldest of three children of strictly religious parents. He dropped out of the University of Missouri in 1985 because he wanted to become an actor. In California he made his way first with commercials and then with small television roles. Pitt appeared alongside Johnny Depp, who was the same age, in the high school comedy “21 Jump Street” when he was in his mid-twenties. His short appearances in the 80s cult series “Dallas” will also be unforgettable. He, who was hardly known at the time, even had a short sex scene.

Pitt’s big screen breakthrough came in a small role as Geena Davis’s blonde seducer in the road movie Thelma and
Louise” (1991). Robert Redford immediately hired him as the leading actor in his family drama “A River Rises from the Middle.” A year later he played a brutal serial killer in “Kalifornia.” The newcomer had a romance with co-star Juliette Lewis .

In the mid-90s he was in a relationship with “Seven” film partner Gwyneth Paltrow, then the women’s favorite met “Friends” star Jennifer Aniston. At their wedding in Malibu in the summer of 2000, the paparazzi circled the Pacific coast in helicopters. “People” magazine voted him “Sexiest Man” twice. The marriage fell apart in 2005 when he met Jolie.

Professionally, he continued across all film genres with the “Ocean’s Eleven” series, “Troy”, “Babel”, “Inglourious Basterds”, “The Tree of Life” and “World War Z”. After three Oscar nominations as a supporting and leading actor for “12 Monkeys” (1996), “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (2009) and “The Art of Winning – Moneyball” (2012), Pitt triumphed at the Oscars for the first time in 2014. Stage. Not as an actor, but as co-producer of the slave drama “12 Years a Slave,” which won the top Oscar for best film.

Pitt markets its own skin care products – and thinks “anti-aging” is nonsense

The second Oscar was awarded in 2020 for his acting skills – as stuntman Cliff Booth in Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”. In the supporting role, he played the loyal friend of an aging star (Leonardo DiCaprio) in Hollywood in 1969, at the time of the Manson murder series. In his acceptance speech, Pitt dedicated the Oscar to his children. “You make everything I do colorful,” said the then 56-year-old at the Academy Awards.

In the action comedy “Bullet Train” last year, Pitt played a contract killer who is supposed to strike on a Japanese express train, but actually doesn’t like violence. At the Berlin cinema premiere in summer 2022, he reflected on his own mental life. “The older I get, the more I become interested in topics like spirituality and psychology. That helps,” he said.

A little later he came to the screen with the wild film spectacle “Babylon – Rush of Ecstasy”. Directed by Damien Chazelle and alongside Margot Robbie, he shone as a celebrated movie star in early Hollywood in the 1920s.

A request from the German Press Agency to Pitt’s spokesperson team as to how he would celebrate his 60th birthday remained unanswered. The actor commented on getting older in an interview with British Vogue a year ago. “I don’t want to run away from aging,” Pitt said. “This is a concept we cannot escape, and I would rather see our culture embrace this with a little more open arms.”

Pitt runs his own skin care range and, in his own words, rejected a product promise such as “anti-aging”: “It’s ridiculous, a fairy tale.” It is important to learn to love yourself and treat yourself better. “Just age healthily, age in a healthy way.”

Sources: dpa / ““

See the photo series: They were considered Hollywood’s dream couple: Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt. But they separated in 2016 and have been arguing ever since. The children stand in between.