Jason Priestley got real about the good, the bad and the smelly side of having Brad Pitt as a roommate before they were both famous.
“There were three of us living in a two-bedroom apartment in a really crappy part of L.A.,” Priestley, 54, recalled of his and Pitt’s pad during the Tuesday, January 16, episode of Live! With Kelly and Mark. “Brad wasn’t as bad as my other roommate, who was an absolute disaster.”
Priestley insisted that “Brad was OK” as a housemate but noted that all three of the men had hygiene issues. “We used to play this game, all of us, to see who could go the longest without showering,” he recounted. “I think about it now and I’m like, ‘Dude, how disgusting. What were you thinking?'”
According to Priestley, Pitt, 60, was the winner every time. It was “always Brad,” he claimed. The Beverly Hills, 90210 alum joked, “I don’t think he does that anymore. But back then he could go a long time without showering.”
When cohost Mark Consuelos asked what was in their fridge during that time, Priestley replied, “Uh, beer. That’s about it.”
Priestley became a megastar in 1990 when he was cast as Brandon Walsh on Beverly Hills, 90210. However, his first role was in 1978’s Stacey. He appeared in several hit ’80s series as a guest star before becoming one of the 1990s’ biggest TV actors.
Pitt burst onto the Hollywood scene in 1987 when he appeared in two episodes of Another World and four episodes of Dallas. By the 1990s, he had crossed over to movies, landing parts in Interview With the Vampire and Thelma & Louise.
Although Priestley and Pitt only lived together for a “brief” time, the pair remained close as their fame grew. “We were friends for a very long time,” Priestley said during an August 2019 appearance on Rachael Ray.
Priestley then recounted a funny story about an interesting present he once received from Pitt. “Back in 1989 it was Christmastime. We all got together to exchange Christmas gifts. It was the late ‘80s, everyone wanted to be a bad boy,” Priestley explained. “Everybody walked around with their ripped jeans. Everybody was smoking. We all thought it was cool.”
He remembered most of the group bringing “bottles of Jack Daniels and cartons of cigarettes” because “everyone was going to be cool.” Pitt, however, went in a totally different direction.
“Brad had come back from visiting his family in Missouri and he brought us all bibles,” Priestly shared, letting out a laugh. “Our names were embossed. They were really nice. I’ve still got mine, it’s at home on my bookshelf.”
