The Ocean’s Eleven actor described the experience as transformative, calling AA “an amazing thing” during a conversation with Dax Shepard on the June 23 episode of Armchair Expert.
“It was when I first was getting sober,” Brad said. “It was just incredible. Men sharing their experiences, their foibles, their missteps, their wants, their aches and a lot of humor with it.”
Pitt shares six children with Jolie. Maddox, 23, Pax, 21, Zahara, 20, Shiloh, 19, and 16-year-old twins Vivienne and Knox. He admitted that while he found it difficult to speak up at first, he eventually came to embrace the group.
“I was pretty much on my knees and I was really open,” he recalled. “I was trying anything, anything anyone threw at me. It was a difficult time. I needed rebooting. I needed to wake the f--k up in some areas. And it just meant a lot to me … Everyone was so open.”
The openness of others in the group made a lasting impact. Even with concerns about being recognized or having his words leaked, Pitt didn’t hold back.
“I am a stubborn f--k,” he said. “When I’ve stepped in s--t, I’m pretty good at taking responsibility for it and owning up to it. Now it’s a quest to, ‘What do I do with this? How can I right this?’ And make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
He explained that joining AA gave him the chance to observe others who had already been through the process. “I was really open to see what these guys were doing, who had their thing and been there for a while,” he said. “I can generally be a bit shy in any kind of situation first. But I just remember getting my arms around it pretty quickly. It became a thing for me. It was really something I’d look forward to.”
Dax Shepard, who has also been open about his own recovery, was a familiar face in the 30-person group and someone Pitt came to appreciate.
“I really respected it,” Pitt said. “It was really open, honest. It was a way to take whatever theme seemed to go in the evening and then put it in the funniest package. It meant a lot to me, it really did.”
The Fight Club star previously shared that he began attending meetings after a confrontation with Jolie on a private jet over his drinking—an incident that ultimately led to their 2016 divorce. As he told The New York Times in 2019, “I had taken things as far as I could take it, so I removed my drinking privileges.”
For more stories from celebrities who’ve opened up about their sobriety, keep reading.
