Actor Brad Pitt took some heat on Twitter recently for calling old-school versions of masculinity, like those often associated with Hollywood legend Clint Eastwood, “exhausting” after wearing a skirt to a red carpet premiere.
The brown linen skirt swayed around the Hollywood icon’s knees when he walked a red carpet for his latest action film “Bullet Train.” The outfit drew sneers from fans who expected something different covering the legs of an actor once known for his sex appeal and six-pack abs.
Asked what made him dress that way, Pitt said, “I don’t know! We’re all going to die, so let’s mess it up,” according to Variety.
Later in a Financial Times interview, Pitt shed some light on what may have been behind the look.
“Where I grew up, we’re more the Clint Eastwood character,” Pitt told FT, meaning “you hold everything within, you’re capable, you can deal with anything, you don’t show weakness.”
The actor said holding true to those ideals is “exhausting.”
“As I get older, I find such a comfort in friendships where you can be [completely yourself], and I want that to extend in the outer world. What people make of it: I’m fine,” he added.
Some Twitter users seized on Pitt’s remarks and offered up their own explanations for the actor’s exhaustion.
“It wasn’t ‘exhausting’ for Clint, it just came naturally to him,” one user tweeted. “If you can’t hack it as a real man, Brad, then maybe the problem is yours and not the ‘image.’”
Others didn’t let Pitt’s remarks distract them from ex-wife Angelina Jolie’s allegations that he had an abusive meltdown on a private plane in 2016, as reported by the Washington Post.
“Masculinity on screen and COWARDICE in real life: abusing and assauting his wife and kids,” one such user tweeted.
Another user pointed out Pitt’s hypocrisy if Jolie’s allegations are true. “Didn’t hold everything in when he assaulted his wife and kids on that plane did he?” they tweeted.
