Brad Pitt is shifting the conversation around artificial intelligence in Hollywood by suggesting it could be the key to saving mid-budget films. While much of the industry remains skeptical, Pitt sees a practical path forward where technology acts as a tool to lower the costs of expensive visual effects.
He recently shared his perspective in a cover story for Esquire. Pitt explained that AI could help projects with budgets between $40 million and $90 million actually get off the ground. As he put it, “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, $40 to $90 million-budgeted films, get made.”
When asked if the technology could replicate his own acting work, he noted that it really depends on the person behind the controls. He explained, “Well, it depends on who’s creating it, you know? Who’s behind it, who’s telling the story. Who’s saying, ‘I want to see this emotion from him,’ and then being able to mine through whatever AI provides and going, ‘More in this direction,’ and tailoring it in that way. So they could, but the final product might not be my choices and what I found and discovered in the thing.”
Pitt is much more cautious when it comes to the idea of AI replacing human performances
Pitt described the current shift as “gonna be a very interesting experiment” for the industry. He also touched on the practice of body scanning, which is frequently used for stunt work or de-aging but has sparked intense debates about licensing and future usage.
Pitt revealed he has been dealing with these scans for two decades. He stated, “They’re telling us all to … scan ourselves. I’ve been scanned for the last 20 years, and I’ve always put in my contract: I own them and I destroy them. I should have kept them! All this time I’ve always had them destroyed, because I’m paranoid Ozark boy.”
Beyond film production, Pitt has even experimented with AI-generated music. He admitted to hearing a track that he thought was “pretty damn good,” though he noticed a distinct limitation. He observed that “it had a repetitive nature to it. It’s not going to be the same as hearing her voice — a woman’s voice, a person’s voice.”
Looking ahead, Pitt has a busy schedule. He is starring in Heart of the Beast, which follows a special forces soldier and his dog after a plane crash. He is also set to reprise his role as Cliff Booth in a project titled The Adventures of Cliff Booth. While the film is written by Quentin Tarantino, it will be directed by David Fincher.
Pitt shared that after Tarantino decided not to make the film his final project, he asked for permission to show the script to Fincher. “Quentin gave me his blessing,” Pitt said. “Finch and I were on a plane and I gave him the script, and by the time we landed he said, ‘I’m doing it.’”
In the same interview, Pitt spoke openly about his personal life and his current relationship with sobriety. He mentioned that he is no longer sober, noting, “I was sober for seven years. And then I got back off the wagon.” He explained that he now approaches it in a more restrained way, saying, “I got overconfident a couple times, went, Yep, nope, not good for me. Not in big quantities.” He added that he can handle a few glasses of wine but remains professional about his limits.
Pitt also reflected on a difficult period involving his family. He discussed a time when he struggled with intense pain, stating, “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.”
Published: Aug 10, 2026 07:00 pm