Brad Pitt is an independent man who don’t need no ghostwriter! Throughout the 2020 awards season, the Once Upon a Time in Hollywood star has been making audiences and viewers at home crack up with his witty acceptance speeches — all of which he apparently wrote on his own.
“Historically, I’ve always been really tentative about speeches. They make me nervous,” Pitt, 56, admitted in the press room at the 92nd Academy Awards on Sunday, February 9. “So this round I figured if we’re gonna do this, [I’m going to] put some real work into it, try to get comfortable, and this is a result of that. I definitely write [them].”
The actor acknowledged that while he has “some very funny friends” who could potentially help him out in the speech-writing department, he is well aware that “it’s gotta come from the heart.”
That said, Pitt told Variety earlier in the evening that he and his Fight Club director, David Fincher, “trade barbs every week.” He also cited Jim Jefferies and Bob Oschack as his comedy inspirations.
The Thelma & Louise star has delivered plenty of memorable speeches this year, starting with the Golden Globe Awards on January 5, when he said that he “would have shared the raft” with his Once Upon a Time costar Leonardo DiCaprio in the 1997 classic Titanic. Two weeks later, he quipped about adding his SAG Award win “to my Tinder profile.”
Pitt was unable to fly to London later in January for the BAFTA Awards, but he still wrote a speech and had his Once Upon a Time costar Margot Robbie read it aloud to the audience. In it, he joked about how Britain also “just became single,” referencing Brexit and his divorce from Angelina Jolie. Pitt then poked fun at Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s recent move away from the British royal family, saying he was going to name his trophy after the prince because he was “really excited about bringing it back to the States.”
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button star was a bit more serious at Sunday’s Oscars, where he dedicated his award to his six children with Jolie: Maddox, 18, Pax, 16, Zahara, 15, Shiloh, 13, and twins Knox and Vivienne, 11. “You color everything I do. I adore you,” he gushed.
