Brad Pitt showed off a deliberately tattered, hipster-chic outfit at a Los Angeles screening of his new film Heart of the Beast, appearing relaxed and cheerful despite ongoing public estrangement from several of his children and recent comments from ex-wife Angelina Jolie about her own close bond with them.
Brad Pitt made a striking style statement at a screening of his new film Heart of the Beast in Los Angeles on Tuesday, held at Paramount Studios. The 62-year-old actor arrived in a tattered indigo Maison Margiela sweatshirt, splattered with white paint and marked with the brand’s name written as “MARGIE LA” across the hem, paired with a navy blue fedora as he took to the stage to speak to the audience.
A deliberately dishevelled look
Pitt completed the outfit with patched and distressed acid wash jeans, key lime green sneakers, a well-maintained salt-and-pepper beard, and a pair of squared-off aviator-style glasses. Despite ongoing public estrangement from several of his children, and recent comments from ex-wife Angelina Jolie about her own close relationship with the family, Pitt appeared relaxed and upbeat while interacting with the audience at the screening.
Jolie, 51, biologically conceived three of her and Pitt’s children, Shiloh, 20, and twins Knox and Vivienne, 18, with the couple also adopting Maddox, 25, Pax, 22, and Zahara, 21. In recent years, all of the children except Pax and Knox have filed legal paperwork to drop Pitt’s surname, with Vivienne the most recent to formalise the change.
Speaking to L’Officiel USA, Jolie recently described a warm relationship with her children, saying they “know me pretty well” and “know all sides of me.” Discussing Maddox and Pax’s work as assistant directors on her films, she said: “Obviously it’s nice for me to be around them, but I am just Mom, wanting to be around her family.” She added that her children are “definitely individuals,” which “makes me very proud, because one of the most important things, I think, is to basically not get in their way.”
About Heart of the Beast
The screening comes ahead of the film’s global premiere, scheduled for 16 September at the FirstBank Amphitheater in Nashville, with Pitt, director David Ayer and the film’s producers expected to attend. The unusual outdoor venue was reportedly chosen at Pitt’s own request, rather than using a more conventional Hollywood premiere location. The film will then receive a wide US theatrical release on 25 September, with its UK cinema release scheduled for the same date.
Heart of the Beast marks Pitt’s first collaboration with director David Ayer since 2014’s Fury, with Pitt also serving as one of the film’s producers. He plays James Belmont, a former Army Special Forces officer who survives a plane crash in the Alaskan wilderness alongside his retired combat dog, Odin. The dog playing Odin, named Uber, has drawn particular praise from Pitt, who described the animal as “the star of the film” and said the bond that developed between them during filming was unexpectedly special.
A demanding shoot
The film was primarily shot in New Zealand, with the country’s Fiordland region standing in for the Alaskan wilderness, a remote setting that reportedly made production particularly physically demanding. Director David Ayer has described the shoot as one of the most challenging of his career, saying the seemingly simple premise, “a guy, a dog, woods, a mountain, a plane,” proved considerably harder to execute than expected.
Pitt’s character has been deliberately written as a “haunted soul” grappling with past trauma, with the wilderness survival story functioning as more than a straightforward action film. J.K. Simmons and Anna Lambe round out the principal cast, though the film places particular emphasis on Pitt’s character and his relationship with the dog. Paramount has given the film a PG-13 rating in the US, citing language, bloody images, peril, injury imagery and violence, while it has received a 12A classification in the UK for moderate injury detail, threat, violence and language.
A personal connection for Pitt
Pitt has recently spoken publicly about grief, depression and drinking, as well as his own experiences during filming, saying the emotional journey of his character connected with themes he has explored in his own life.
Fresh promotional material has also been released ahead of the film’s launch, including featurettes focused specifically on Pitt’s relationship with Uber and the challenges of training and filming with the canine actor. A separate lighthearted campaign features Pitt in a De’Longhi coffee advertisement directed by Spike Jonze, in which 16 dogs “criticise” him via subtitles while demanding he make their coffee, a campaign that deliberately plays on the dog-centred premise of Heart of the Beast. Paramount has reportedly positioned the film toward an older, predominantly male audience, with the studio expecting its survival and action elements, combined with Pitt’s star power, to resonate with that core demographic.
