Sometimes I can’t tell if Brad Pitt really is this sad, lonely figure or if he’s performing “sad loneliness” because that’s his new brand/persona. The persona was basically the only one left to him in the past three years since Angelina left him. He’s not spending much time with his kids, and for more than two years, he couldn’t even see his kids without a neutral third-party observer present. He tried to make “Brad’s new girlfriend” happen a few times and it always seemed rather… forced. And so the one persona left to him is “the guy who sits alone in an art studio and sculpts.” Don’t get me wrong, I love being alone and being in a quiet, pretty art space for days, weeks and months at a time sounds like heaven. Maybe it’s heaven for Brad too – a chance for him to reflect and think and create art. He seems pleased with all of his sculpting too. He chatted with The Hollywood Reporter about it:

A couple of years ago, Rambling Reporter incorrectly reported that Brad Pitt skipped the Academy Awards on the night when his Plan B-produced Moonlight took home the top prize in favor of sculpting at Thomas Houseago’s headquarters. But Pitt recently revealed to The New York Times that actually, on that particular evening Feb. 26, 2017, he had zero eyes on the small screen when Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway screwed up the best picture Oscar hand-over because he was focused on a plate of spaghetti at the home of filmmaker friend James Gray for one the latter’s legendary Sunday night dinners.

What’s true is that Pitt was, at the time, beginning his exploration of the art of sculpture with Houseago’s help — and he’s still doing it. “I’ve been in training, you know,” Pitt told Rambling Reporter at the L.A. premiere of his and Gray’s space epic Ad Astra on Sept. 18. He’s spent hours learning the craft, even traveling with Houseago to the Venice Biennale and checking out exhibits from Paris to L.A. “I’m learning a lot and I love it. It’s a really solo, all on your own venture.”

As for whether the world will ever see the works he’s creating, Pitt was characteristically coy. “If I were to find something that I felt was original to my own vernacular in that way and it had something to add, then yeah. But If I felt it was too derivative of the greats, then no.”

[From THR]

You know what I wonder? I wonder if Brad’s sculptures just look like knockoff Thomas Houseago sculptures. Brad is basically apprenticing with Houseago and I would imagine that Brad is just learning how to sculpt exactly like Houseago. That’s not a bad thing – that’s how many artists start, by copying other artists’ work to see if they can understand and master the techniques used. I would be curious to see Brad’s work just to see if my suspicions are true. I’d also like to know if Sculptor Brad is just a phase until he figures out his next persona.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid.