Brad Pitt Gets Candid About Angelina Jolie Split and Getting Sober: ‘We All Carry Pain’

Opening up. Brad Pitt is once again starring in blockbusters left and right, but there was a time for the A-lister that filled with getting sober and dealing with his divorce from Angelina Jolie — and he recently touched on that.

The 55-year-old sat-down with The New York Times for an interview, and discussed what his mindset was like while filming his latest film, Ad Astra, especially since he was still reeling from his high-profile split. “I had family stuff going on,” the actor revealed. “We’ll leave it at that.” However, he may have used his emotions at the time for his role — he plays an astronaut looking for the truth.

“The fact is, we all carry pain, grief and loss,” the Once Upon a Time in Hollywood star told the outlet. “We spend most of our time hiding it, but it’s there, it’s in you. So you open up those boxes.” While he was still dealing with parting ways from the mother to his six children, Brad was also focused on getting sober. “I had taken things as far as I could take it, so I removed my drinking privileges,” he said. He then went on spend over a year in Alcoholics Anonymous.

“You had all these men sitting around being open and honest in a way I have never heard,” the Oscar winner recalled of his time in the recovery group. “It was this safe space where there was little judgment, and therefore little judgment of yourself … It was actually really freeing just to expose the ugly sides of yourself. There’s great value in that.”

This isn’t the first time that the star has opened up about his life — he recently revealed how difficult it was to leave his conservative household behind when he headed to Hollywood. “It started with me at an early age in a religious environment,” Brad told OK! magazine. “I would think, ‘What’s it all about?’ I had all these questions … Religion was a pacifier for those fears but suddenly I had nothing to answer them with.”

It certainly seems like Brad is back on a good route, and we’re so happy to see that.