Few Hollywood figures have been as publicly forthcoming about their relationship with alcohol over the past decade.
Brad Pitt told Esquire in a wide-ranging interview published today that his seven-year stretch of sobriety is over. "I was sober for seven years. And then I got back off the wagon," the actor said, quickly adding that he now drinks "in a more restrained manner."
The subject surfaced casually during the cover-story sit-down, after Pitt offered the interviewer a glass of wine. The writer asked whether the wine was meant only for guests. It wasn't.
Pitt delivered the admission with what Esquire described as a "little laugh," then raised a finger to clarify: "I got overconfident a couple times, went, 'Yep, nope, not good for me.' Not in big quantities." Asked what moderation looks like in practice, the 62-year-old explained, "I can have a few [glasses of wine]. But I can't have a lot."
"I have to be professional about it," he added.
Esquire noted that Pitt values his mornings and does not want to sacrifice them to a heavy night. That framing matters. Most early coverage has focused on the headline, not the texture around it.
Given the timeline and his own phrasing, the actor appears to have been off the wagon for at least a couple of years already. This was not a breaking confession so much as a candid acknowledgment of something that had been quietly true.
The interview went somewhere considerably heavier. Pitt also opened up about experiencing a brief period of suicidal ideation, telling Esquire: "I just couldn't — just didn't see a way out. The pain was so oppressive that — I wasn't going to act on this, but I could feel — I could feel the cold steel of the bullet in my head, and it felt like relief." He continued: "I understand suicide, in the sense that it's just relief. It's just looking for relief from the pain. But I also think we have incredible survival instincts."
The actor described himself as a "congenital optimist" who had never previously grappled with those kinds of thoughts. When the interviewer pressed on whether the period involved his children, Pitt declined to elaborate, saying only: "Family stuff. We could leave it at that."
That word carries weight. Pitt's separation from Angelina Jolie in 2016 led to years of legal proceedings and a divorce settlement reached in late 2024. Jolie accused him of physical abuse, and several of their children have since moved to drop his surname. Their daughter Vivienne filed to legally drop his last name after turning 18.
None of this is new territory for Pitt, exactly. In 2019, he told The New York Times he had spent a year and a half in an all-male Alcoholics Anonymous group. At the 2020 National Board of Review gala, with Bradley Cooper in the audience, Pitt said from the stage: "I got sober because of this guy. And every day's been happier ever since."
Earlier in his career, he acknowledged in a 2012 Hollywood Reporter interview that he had smoked marijuana to cope with depression following his breakout in the early 1990s. He later spoke about spending years with what he called a "low-grade depression," saying, "I always felt very alone in my life."
What separates the Esquire piece from prior interviews is how directly Pitt addresses suicidal ideation and how frankly he admits the sobriety chapter closed. As he put it: "This s*** ain't easy" — even for someone who says he "won the lottery."
The rest of the profile covers lighter ground. Pitt discussed reprising his Once Upon a Time in Hollywood character in a new Netflix project, The Adventures of Cliff Booth, written by Quentin Tarantino and directed by David Fincher. "Quentin gave me his blessing," Pitt said of passing the script to Fincher. He also has Heart of the Beast opening at the end of September.
It's a lot of ground for one sit-down. Online reactions are already fierce, with the sobriety and mental-health revelations dominating social feeds and clip-sharing within hours of publication. Viral headlines are, predictably, pulling the most alarming quotes out of a much longer, more nuanced conversation.
That happens. It's worth reading the full interview.
If you or someone you know is struggling with suicidal thoughts, the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline is available 24/7 by calling or texting 988. You can also chat at 988lifeline.org. The Crisis Text Line is reachable by texting 741741.
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