Brad Pitt is opening up about a vulnerable time in his life. The A-list actor sat down for a chat with Dax Shepard on the Armchair Expert podcast where he talked about attending Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) meetings. During their chat, Pitt shared that he actually first met the Parenthood star at a meeting many years ago.
"Given the context in which we met, which is like really heightened honesty and vulnerability, does it make you nervous to have to talk with me in public?” Shepard asked.
"No, not at all. Quite at ease," Pitt replied, adding, "we can say men's group, right?"
"I was going to say AA. You’re not supposed to say it, but I say it," Shepard responded.
"It was AA. It was when I was first getting sober. I just thought it was just incredible. Men sharing their experiences, their foibles, their missteps, their wants, their aches, and a lot of humor with it. I thought it was a really special experience. Coming from the Ozarks, where we’re like, ‘Everything’s great,'" Pitt recalled.
The F1 star went on to share a bit about what it was like in AA with Shepard.
"You go around in a circle, it’s kind of a spiral because it’s a really crowded room. Dax was usually near the end because he’s been there a while. He’s kind of like an elder statesman. And I really respected it. It was really open, honest, was a way to take whatever theme seemed to go in the evening and then put it in the funniest package. And it meant a lot to me, it really did," he said.
Meanwhile, Shepard said that seeing Pitt walk into an AA meeting was "pretty overwhelming."
Pitt admitted that it was a "difficult time" in his life and that he needed to "wake the f--- up in some areas."
Pitt, who has been sober for about nine years, previously opened up about his decision to attend AA in a June 2022 interview with GQ. He told the outlet that he spent 18 months months attending meetings following his 2016 split from Angelina Jolie.