Brad Pitt Plans to 'Abstain' from Oscar Campaigning, Calls It a 'Disservice' to the Films
Brad Pitt is planning to take it easy this awards season.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly published Monday, the 55-year-old actor revealed that he has no interest in campaigning for Oscar nominations for his roles in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood and James Gray’s Ad Astra.
“Oh, man. I’m gonna abstain,” he told the outlet.
“I mean, you never know, and it’s really nice when your number comes up,” he added. “But the goal is for the film to land, to speak to someone whether it’s now or a decade from now. I find chasing it actually a disservice to the purity of your telling a story, and a shackling thing to focus on.”
Pitt earned rave reviews for his performance as Cliff Booth in the Tarantino film, which marked his second collaboration with the director (their first was with 2009’s Inglourious Basterds). It was also his first film in two years, having last appeared in the 2017 Netflix drama War Machine.
While many believe that Pitt could earn a nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his work as Booth — playing opposite of Leonardo DiCaprio — the actor has also earned high praise for his role as Roy McBride in Ad Astra.
Gray told EW that Pitt understood McBride’s character “completely” and showed true talent in controlling that performance.
“In some ways, because he’s a star, Brad’s acting is underrated. To control a performance and still convey the ideas and the emotions necessary for the film I think is as difficult as anything, really,” he said of Pitt. “To be kind of showy — and by the way I’m not saying this about him in Quentin’s movie, which I think is wonderful — but sometimes a showy performance can lead us in a very obvious series of choices. But he understood it completely, this character who lives so much in his own head.”
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Despite the recent success, the Thelma & Louise actor actually plans to cut back on starring in films in the future.
“It’ll be fewer and farther in between for me, just because I have other things I want to do now,” Pitt told The New York Times earlier this month. “When you feel like you’ve finally got your arms around something, then it’s time to go get your arms around something else.”
Ad Astra launches into theaters Sept. 20, 2019.
