Brad Pitt Gets Candid About Attending Alcoholics Anonymous amid Angelina Jolie Split: ‘I Needed Rebooting’
Shepard, 50, who has been very open about his struggles with substance abuse and sobriety, wondered if Pitt was “nervous” to speak with him publicly after they met in AA, noting the “really heightened honesty and vulnerability” of the situation.
But Pitt assured him that he was, “Quite at ease.”
Pitt also shared that while he was a bit “shy” coming into the AA group, he also didn’t hesitate to open up because of how low he was at that time.
“I was pretty much on my knees, and I was really open,” he told Shepard. “I was trying anything and everyone. Anything anyone threw at me. It was a difficult time. I needed rebooting. I needed to wake the f— up in some areas. And it just meant a lot to me.”
“Yeah. You don’t come into AA because everything’s working out fantastic,” Shepard agreed.
“No. That’s usually not the entry point,” Pitt quipped in response.
“It’s not the winner’s club,” Shepard added. “Your hair has gotta be on fire before you go like, ‘Yeah, I’ll go hang with a bunch of dudes and talk about emotions.’ “
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Pitt first opened up about his time in AA in a 2019 profile for the New York Times. He shared that he entered the program in 2016 after his ex, Angelina Jolie, first filed for divorce.
“It was actually really freeing to just expose the ugly sides of yourself,” he told the outlet of entering the program at the time. “There’s a great value in that.”
