Brad Pitt felt "suicidal" as he dealt with "family stuff" following his split from Angelina Jolie.
The Fight Club star has confessed that he "didn't see a way out" following his acrimonious separation from the Changeling actress in 2016.
Brad – who has six children with Angelina – told Esquire UK: "I've never been suicidal except for one little period. And in that one little period, I just thought – I just couldn't – just didn't see a way out.
"The pain was so oppressive that – I wasn't going to act on this, but I could feel – I could feel the cold steel of the bullet in my head, and it felt like relief.
"And I thought, 'Oh, okay, now I understand' – I understand suicide, in the sense that it's just relief. It's just looking for relief from the pain. But I also think we have incredible survival instincts. And for me, that immediately kicked in, but it was just..."
The 62-year-old actor added: "This s*** ain't easy. And you're talking to a guy who won the lottery."
When asked if he was dealing with "kid stuff", Brad replied: "Family stuff. We could leave it at that."
Elsewhere in the interview, the F1 actor revealed that he is no longer sober after going seven years without drinking.
Pitt said: "I was sober for seven years. And then I got back off the wagon.
"In a more restrained manner. I got overconfident a couple times, went, yep, nope, not good for me. Not in big quantities."
The Hollywood icon explained that he "can have a few glasses of wine" but "can't have a lot".
Brad said: "I have to be professional about it."
Meanwhile, the Once Upon a Time in Hollywood star has predicted that AI will have a major role to play in the future of the movie industry.
He said: "There's a lot of pushback against AI, but AI is going to be the very thing that, if used as a tool, is going to help these mid-budget films, forty-to-ninety-million-dollar budgeted films, get made."
Read the full interview with Brad Pitt at https://www.esquire.com/uk/culture/film/a73360477/brad-pitt-interview-2026/
