The Rare Health Condition Brad Pitt Lives With
You don't have to be a movie buff to recognize the name Brad Pitt. Despite telling GQ that he considers himself to be in the last leg of his career, he's recently been in "Once Upon a Time... In Hollywood," "The Lost City," and the upcoming "Bullet Train."
As Insider recaps, Pitt found his breakout role in "Thelma and Louise," where he wowed audiences with his abs and sass. Just four years later, in 1995, he was named People's Sexiest Man Alive. A director on one of his former sets credited his win to the fact that Pitt is "a man's man who seems to be a woman's man too."
But despite his celebrated global appeal, Pitt has recently opened up about his fears that he might come off as unapproachable or rude. While he has one of the world's most memorable faces, he can't seem to keep track of others' due to a rare health condition.
Brad Pitt suspects he has prosopagnosia
Despite his status as an A-list celebrity, Brad Pitt does his best to remain down to earth and friendly to those he encounters. He did share in an interview with Heat that he prefers not to be approached by fans while he's using the urinal, but that seems like a pretty reasonable request. Even with his good intentions, though, the star has noted that he often offends people due to a condition outside of his control.
Pitt first shared with Esquire in 2013 that he suspects he has prosopagnosia, aka face blindness. Even when the actor has engaged with someone in an extended conversation, their appearance does not stick in his memory. "I can't grasp a face and yet I come from such a design/aesthetic point of view," he said, acknowledging the irony. "So many people hate me because they think I'm disrespecting them."
In a June 2022 interview with GQ, Pitt shared that he still believes he suffers from the condition. "Nobody believes me," he lamented.
Brad Pitt nods to his condition in Bullet Train
While living with prosopagnosia is undoubtedly frustrating, Brad Pitt seems willing to make light of the situation — or, at the very least, the writers of the 2022 film "Bullet Train" are.
In what is either a made-for-Hollywood coincidence or a cheeky nod to Pitt super-fans, the trailer for the action film seems to include a reference to the condition the actor says he has. In one scene, Sandra Bullock's character hisses over the phone to Brad Pitt's Ladybug, an assassin, refreshing his memory about a target. "It's the Wolf. He was in the wedding you infiltrated in Mexico," Bullock snaps. Cut to realization striking the actor: "The groom. I knew I recognized that guy! I'm really good with faces," Pitt exclaims. On the other end of the line, Bullock hardly gives time for the joke to sink in, ordering Pitt to "get off the train."
If Pitt can't find a true cure for his face blindness, at least his acting can convince us he has for a while.