The curious case of Brad Pitt

Right from Thelma & Louise to Moneyball, Brad Pitt’s meteoric rise to fame has been something of an enigma. One of the few heartthrobs of Hollywood who has managed to stun audiences across the world with his performances, everything he does makes headlines. With his latest gangster flick Killing Them Softly releasing this  weekend, we take a look at best of Brad Pitt.

Best of Brad Pitt

Fight Club (1999)
Brad Pitt played Tyler Durden, a soap maker who starts a fight club along with his friend, in this cult hit which was based on Chuck Palahniuk’s book. Directed by David Fincher, Brad Pitt’s fiery performance made him a global phenomenon. It’s a mind numbing film which will haunt you for a long time. Apart from his performance, his chiselled body is still talked about on the Internet.

Seven (1995)

David Fincher’s Seven, a thriller film, had Brad Pitt playing a detective David Mills who’s trying his best to find the mysterious killer. A film by David Fincher is bound to catch you off guard at some point or the other and when you see the horror in Pitt’s eyes towards the end, you begin to understand his veracity as an actor. It deserves to be among every best of Brad Pitt’s list.

Moneyball (2011)
Shortly after he starred in Terrence Malick’s Tree of Life, Brad Pitt was seen in Bennett Miller’s Moneyball in which he played the role of a general manager of a baseball team who uses unusual methods to assemble a new team. The role demanded an extremely restrained performance from Pitt and he walked away with rave reviews and plenty of award nominations.

Twelve Monkeys (1995)
In Twelve Monkeys, Brad Pitt played a frantic asylum inmate who’s obsessed with animal rights and anti-consumerism. Although Bruce Willis played the lead role in this sci-fi film directed by Terry Gilliam, but Brad Pitt was terrifying in his role. Apparently, Terry Gilliam confiscated Brad Pitt’s cigarettes to make him enact the role. Eventually, Brad Pitt won a Golden Globe for his performance.

Meet Joe Black (1998)
The film was an unusual tale about an angel of death, Joe Black (Brad Pitt) who comes to Earth to meet William (Anthony Hopkins), but ends up falling in love with William’s daughter. The film opened with mixed reviews, but did quite well at the box office. He has proved time and again that he would suit just about anything. Even if that means playing the angel of death himself!

Achilles’ heel

Jill Schoelen
Jill Schoelen was Brad Pitt’s co-star in Rospo Pallenberg’s slasher film Cutting Class and the two were in a relationship for quite sometime before they parted ways. There were even rumours that the two got engaged; however, their relationship didn’t last long. Back in 1989, he was still trying to find a breakthrough.

Juliette Lewis
She was 16 when she began dating Brad Pitt. The two met on the sets of Robert Markowitz’s Too Young to Die? in 1990 and three years later they reunited for Dominic Sena’s Kalifornia. Having acted in films like Cape Fear Juliette’s career was flourishing in the early 90s. The two broke up in 1993 soon after the release of Kalifornia.

Gwyneth Paltrow
Brad Pitt’s relationship with Gwyneth Paltrow was a high profile affair in Hollywood in the mid 90s. The duo dated for almost three years and they were briefly engaged before Gwyneth called off the engagement because she wasn’t ready for marriage. It turned out to be a decision that she would regret for quite sometime.

Jeniffer Aniston
In 1998, Brad Pitt met Jeniffer Aniston, who was already a popular actress across the world, thanks to the sitcom F.R.I.EN.D.S. The two got married in 2000 at a private ceremony. However, their marriage didn’t last long. In 2005, they decided to part ways after reports emerged that Pitt was in love with Angelina Jolie.

Angelina Jolie

Perhaps no other couple in recent times got as much as attention as Brangelina got right from the time they publicly acknowledged that they were in a relationship. The two fell in love on the sets of Mr & Mrs Smith and soon after his divorce with Aniston, his live in relationship with Jolie began. The couple now live with their six children.

Films to watch out for

Brad Pitt has been producing films since 2005 through his studio Plan B Entertainment. In the past, his studio had backed films like The Departed, A Mighty Heart, Eat Prey Love, Tree of Life, Moneyball and his upcoming film Killing Them Softly, in which he plays a professional enforcer who’s sent to investigate a heist. After this, he’s co-producing and acting in Marc Forster’s World War Z, a film which is based on Max Brooks’ novel of the same name. Brad Pitt plays a United Nations employee who must find a way to stop the zombie outbreak. In 2013, he’ll be seen in Steve McQueen’s period drama Twelve Years a Slave where he plays a New York-based attorney who goes to Louisiana to save his family friend from slavery. After Twelve Years a Slave, Brad Pitt will once again team up with Michael Fassbender in Ridley Scott’s The Counselor which is slated for release in November, 2013.

Tags: Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, featured, Fight Club, full-image, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jeniffer Aniston, Jill Schoelen, Juliette Lewis, Meet Joe Black, Moneyball, Seven, Twelve Monkeys

Category: Cinema, Hollywood