Memo to Hollywood: Don't take it personally if Brad Pitt has no memory of meeting you. The World War Z actor, 49, apparently has a difficult time recognizing people's faces. In fact, he thinks he may suffer from prosopagnosia, or face blindness.
Speaking about the problem in his much-talked-about interview for Esquire magazine's June/July issue, Pitt says that even if he's had a "real conversation" with someone, he'll forget what the person looks like almost as soon as he or she walks away. "So many people hate me because they think I'm disrespecting them," the actor confesses to the mag.
One year, in an attempt to remedy the situation, he tried just "copping" to the predicament and asking people to tell him where they'd met before. But that actually made things worse.
"People were more offended," he says. "Every now and then, someone will give me context, and I'll say, 'Thank you for helping me.' But I piss more people off. You get this thing, like, 'You're being egotistical. You're being conceited.' But it's a mystery to me, man. I can't grasp a face, and yet I come from such a design/aesthetic point of view."
The actor — who has six kids with fiancee Angelina Jolie — says he plans to get tested for prosopagnosia, which affects painter Chuck Close and neuroscientist Oliver Sacks. But in the meantime, he's trying to minimize the number of people he offends by not going out as much. "That's why I stay at home," he says.
Not that he minds being holed up with his kids. Quite the opposite, in fact. "I always thought that if I wanted to do a family, I wanted to do it big," he tells Esquire of his home life.
"I wanted there to be chaos in the house," he continues. "There's constant chatter in our house, whether it's giggling or screaming or crying or banging. I love it. I love it. I love it. I hate it when they're gone. I hate it. Maybe it's nice to be in a hotel room for a day — 'Oh, nice, I can finally read a paper.' But then, by the next day, I miss that cacophony, all that life."
