Brad Pitt opens up on Angelina Jolie split, quitting drinking
Brad Pitt got honest and personal in a revealing new interview with GQ.
The actor talked to the magazine about his recent divorce and his relationship with his children; he also alluded to a possible drinking problem and said that he recently quit alcohol.
Pitt told GQ Style that the past half year has been a "weird" time for him and that things have been tough for his children since their family was "ripped apart." Pitt's ex, Angelina Jolie, filed for divorce in September and was granted full custody of their six children in December. The former Hollywood power couple agreed in January to handle their divorce in a private forum and work together to reunify their family.
Pitt said he wants to be more active as a father: "It's hit me smack in the face with our divorce: I gotta be more. I gotta be more for them. I have to show them. And I haven't been great at it." He continued, "Kids are so delicate. They absorb everything. They need to have their hand held and things explained. They need to be listened to. When I get in that busy work mode, I'm not hearing. I want to be better at that."
He also said that he does not want to have an ugly divorce in court that he considers an "investment in vitriolic hatred."
The actor said, "I just refuse. And fortunately my partner in this agrees. It's just very, very jarring for the kids, to suddenly have their family ripped apart."
Pitt also revealed that though he now lives in the home where his children grew up, it was too painful for him to return there initially.
"It was too sad to be here at first, so I went and stayed on a friend's floor, a little bungalow in Santa Monica," he said. "I crashed over here a little bit, my friend [David] Fincher lives right here. He's always going to have an open door for me, and I was doing a lot of stuff on the Westside, so I stayed at my friend's house on the floor for a month and a half."
Pitt also said that in addition to quitting pot, he stopped drinking recently as well.
"I enjoy wine very, very much, but I just ran it to the ground," he said. "I had to step away for a minute. And truthfully I could drink a Russian under the table with his own vodka." He explained that he quit drinking because he doesn't "want to live that way anymore."
Pitt did mention his estranged wife's name once: He told the interviewer of Jolie's new movie "First They Killed My Father," "You should see Angie's film."
