If you were building the ultimate Hollywood movie star in a laboratory, you'd probably just end up accidentally creating Brad Pitt. The man has spent over three decades making the rest of us look like the rough draft version of humanity. But while lesser mortals might have happily coasted through life relying on cheekbones and good lighting, Pitt has always seemed far more interested in doing strange accents, getting punched in the face and playing blokes who are just a little bit odd.
He first sent Hollywood into meltdown with his scene-stealing turn in Thelma & Louise, where he proved that a cowboy hat and a smile could apparently bring civilisation to a standstill. But instead of spending the next thirty years playing boring romantic leads, Pitt immediately swerved into darker territory. He hunted serial killers in Se7en, played a twitchy lunatic in 12 Monkeys and introduced the world to Tyler Durden in Fight Club, giving an entire generation of young men unrealistic expectations about abs and soap.
The brilliant thing about Brad Pitt is that he's secretly a character actor trapped inside the body of the world's most handsome leading man. He's at his absolute best when he's doing something completely unexpected. Whether it's mumbling incomprehensibly as Mickey the Pikey in Snatch, constantly eating snacks in Ocean's Eleven or carving up Nazis in Inglourious Basterds, he seems happiest when he's having a laugh and keeping audiences guessing.
Away from the camera, he's quietly become one of Hollywood's most influential producers through Plan B Entertainment. While some actors are content with simply cashing enormous cheques, Pitt has helped bring films like 12 Years a Slave and The Big Short to the screen, proving there's plenty of substance behind the movie-star swagger.
And even now, when most people his age are thinking about gardening and comparing air fryer recipes, Brad Pitt is still throwing punches on speeding trains, driving race cars and somehow managing to make getting older look cooler than it has any right to.
• While filming Troy, Brad was in the shape of his life to play Achilles. In one of the most ironic injuries in movie history, he ended up tearing his actual Achilles tendon during filming. Somewhere, the Greek gods were having a proper chuckle.
• Back in 1999, a fan managed to break into Brad's house and decided that rather than stealing valuables, she'd simply put on his clothes and wait for him to come home. Which is either dedication or the plot of a psychological thriller.
• The director of Bullet Train, David Leitch, wasn't just another filmmaker. Before stepping behind the camera, he spent years working as Brad's stunt double on films including Fight Club, Troy and Ocean's Eleven. Talk about getting promoted.
Brad Pitt is a proper, top-tier movie star in the old-school sense of the word. In an industry full of people desperately trying to look cool, he somehow manages it by looking like he couldn't care less. He's spent years actively sabotaging his own heartthrob image by choosing weird, funny and occasionally downright bonkers roles, and cinema is all the better for it. Plus, nobody in film history has ever made eating crisps and sandwiches in the background of scenes look quite so iconic.
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