Brad Pitt, the secrets of his eternal youth

Although not having the freshness of the one it concerns, the info deserves to be said and repeated: Brad Pitt is 59 years old. At the start of “Babylon”, Damien Chazelle’s daunting and stunning fresco of 1920s Hollywood, the actor has 30 to break everything and it passes cream. No surgery. No special effects. Just his regular make-up artist, Jean Black, who has been polishing him since his beginnings.

Beginnings that go back three decades, during which the guy carries an insolent and unalterable beauty. If he still had the charisma of an oyster and the IQ of a whelk, the male race to which your devotee belongs would feel no more resentment than jealousy vis-à-vis the one who always comes first sex-exceptions” (you know, those late-night discussions where your partner chooses who he or she would have the right to sleep with without being blamed). But no. brad pitt is cool, intelligent, cultured, talented, funny and even francophile! This guy was born to piss us off. Although for a few weeks his life has not been a long calm river. It has even become a torrent full of turbulence.

Rather than dragging his ex through the mud, Brad chose to admit his wrongs

Six years ago, the “jetgate”, Homeric argument between him and Angelina Jolie on board the private plane which brought them back from Nice to Los Angeles, resulted in fifty-three pages of a complaint from Madame for violence against her and two of their children. Case closed without further action. But today the alleged victim is filing a counter-complaint in order to prosecute him again for these same facts. Worse, she leaked in the “New York Times” the details of her testimony. In addition to attacks on his physical integrity, as they say in the courtrooms, the man would have poured wine and beer on the kids. Ouch! That breaks the myth a bit.

Or not. Because, rather than dragging his ex through the mud, Brad chose to recognize his wrongs. He denies the assaults described by Angelina but admits a great anger accentuated by an excess of drink, an old demon who sent him to treatment shortly after landing. Acknowledged fault is not necessarily forgiven but allows the tabloids to be more lenient.

During the rare interviews that the star gave on the occasion of the release of “Babylon” in the United States, not a word about these marital pangs. Praised be the marketing department which of course played the watchdog – and will play them again this weekend, since the accused is coming to present the film in Paris. Only Anne-Claire Coudray, on TF1, will have the signal honor of receiving it in her news. The head-to-head will be for another time: his guest will be accompanied by director Damien Chazelle. Clever enough strategy to focus the interview around the feature film and avoid any uncomfortable personal questions.

It took time for me to develop a good relationship with the celebrity

brad pitt

That said, it must cost him, Brad Pitt, to muzzle himself. Not that he is quick to spread out his private life, but he belongs to that rare category of “stars without filters”. Barring exceptions (in this case, a crisis situation), he opens up straightforwardly, always agreeable, listening to his interlocutor, even snubbing his press officer, master of the clocks, he wants to prolong the interview. We don’t interview Brad Pitt, we discuss with him. Like a George Clooney or a Matt Damon, his unfailing friends since “Ocean’s Eleven”. It is also from this megacasse concocted by Steven Soderbergh that Pitt will turn all the votes. We are then in 2001, exactly ten years after he returned the eyes of the whole earth in “Thelma and Louise”, first and short appearance on the screen, for which his fee does not exceed 6000 dollars. Or about 30 million less than what he received for “Bullet Train”, released last summer.

Before being a locomotive, the actor has somewhat derailed in his choices. If “Interview with the Vampire”, “Legends of the Fall”, “Seven” and “Fight Club” put him in the A list of Hollywood actors, the successive (and deserved) failures of the “Mexican” (with Julia Roberts however ) and “Spy Game, spy game” (with Robert Redford, anyway!) weaken it. And then he’s fed up. Of the system, of the notoriety, of the overmediatization of his relationship with Jennifer Aniston. And even from him. “I became aware of this star status when ‘Legends of Autumn’ was released, he told me in 2009. I only left home to shoot. I didn’t know how to react. There is no manual for this kind of situation. It took time for me to develop a good relationship with the celebrity. And the cacophony surrounding my notoriety upset the barometer of my common sense. Scripts were raining everywhere and I had a hard time managing. »

Brad Pitt is never as good as when he assumes what he is: a superstar

The slanderers will see in these moods and these justifications only a problem of the rich. They won’t be wrong. But that is to ignore the human being. After all, no matter how well-built the man is, no one is cut out to endure such pressure for so long. “The idea that the world has of Brad Pitt is only an image, he declared in 2001 to the historian of the cinema Peter Biskind. Because I’m a normal man. It’s touching, this side François Hollande before the hour. But, since one is crowned sex-symbol and that one lives with the small fiancée of America (Jennifer Aniston), this pious affirmation concerns the fantasy. Especially when you start hanging out with George Clooney! This one will nevertheless teach him to relax and to play with this supposedly cursed celebrity and this eternal image of a handsome boy. And Brad Pitt is never as good as when he assumes what he is: a superstar. Who shines in “Troy” as Achilles with bulging muscles and flying hair, erasing Eric Bana and Orlando Bloom at a gallop. Who moves like no one in “Babel” as a father collapsed since the death of his son. Who grants himself the freedom to produce what he wants by creating, with Jennifer Aniston, his company Plan B.

Because he is like that, Brad Pitt. When he is with a woman, he shares everything with her. The ideal guy, yes we know, thank you. And who would rather quit than cheat. Right in his Adidas x Gucci (his favorite sneakers). The story is well known: he shoots “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” with Angelina Jolie, falls in love and immediately divorces Jennifer Aniston. Five years and six children later, they bought together the Miraval estate, a 17th century castle in Correns (Var): 35 million euros, 60 million according to some. A sum, in one case as in the other!

Brad Pitt doesn’t just have taste, he also has business acumen

There, the couple produces rosé under the leadership of the Perrin family of winegrowers. And to discover in the new owner an immoderate love for our country where “there is an exceptional art of living. The culture, the cuisine, the respect… And the ban on invasion of privacy. I’m not saying that we are safe from everything, but we feel less attacked. Where one makes a good living, too. First, the wine from the farm, which sells around 200,000 bottles per year (at an average price of 15 euros per unit), added to a production of 10,000 bottles of olive oil (29 euros the half-liter, all the same!). Then, the resale of Plan B to Mediawan, a group run by Pierre-Antoine Capton, Matthieu Pigasse and Xavier Niel, for the modest sum of 300 million dollars.

Angelina Jolie claims in turn 250 million dollars

Brad Pitt doesn’t just have good taste, he also has business acumen. Furious that Angelina, after their divorce, resold her shares of Miraval to Youri Shefler, a Russian tycoon living in Switzerland, he stuck her with a lawsuit that he not only lost but suffered the backfire: Angelina Jolie claims in turn $250 million for being left out of management. The war never ends.

The rest of this warrior, who was said to have suffered from depression last fall, is called Ines de Ramon. A few weeks ago, only compulsive jewelry buyers and addicts to the “Vampire Diaries” series knew her: the young lady, born on December 19, 1992 (Brad was born on December 18…), works in luxury jewelry and was married to Paul Wesley, star of the aforementioned program. But, since December 15, all the spotlights are on the one who accompanied Brad Pitt to the premiere organized for the release of “Babylon”.

For the first time in almost six years, “the most coveted bachelor on the planet” appears with a girlfriend

It’s not just one more piece of news for the people gazettes, but literally an event! Since his stormy separation, Brad Pitt has never been seen so often on the arm of a woman. Actress Ella Purnell, who played young Angelina Jolie in “Maleficent” (!), and supermodel Nicole Poturalski briefly played extras on her arm. Nothing serious. For the first time in almost six years, “the most coveted bachelor on the planet” is therefore displayed with a girlfriend during an official release. It’s reassuring, because it was hard to imagine the valiant ephebe of “Once upon a Time … in Hollywood”, the very one who repaired the antennas on the roofs, being plagued by anxiolytics.

Brad Pitt is stainless. His slaughter in “Babylon” attests to this. He more or less plays his own role, that of a superstar. With one difference: in Chazelle’s film, the star sees Hollywood slip away from under her feet, while Brad Pitt slips away from Hollywood. If he still works there on occasion, he has just announced his intention to settle permanently in France. It doesn’t matter whether or not it’s with Ines de Ramon. That should worry more than one, and titillate many others.