Quentin Tarantino and the cast ofOnce Upon a Time …in Hollywoodwere in London last night for the UK premiere. The film opened strong this weekend, QT’s best ever box office. That f-cking ellipsis though. I wrote about thisa few weeks ago,关于t的位置不一致的he ellipsis (Once Upon a Time… in HollywoodorOnce Upon a Time in… Hollywood) and apparently Sony was asked about it andaccording to the New York Times, it’s both. As in both are correct and it was a “creative decision” depending on context. To me this is absurd. But we are not here to talk about punctuation. Let’s talk instead about Brad Pitt and how good he looks. Specifically WHY he looks good.
For years I’ve written about Brad Pitt’s gait. He has a HOT gait. Gait means more to some than others. I know this because Leonardo DiCaprio has bad gait, like a really unsexy gait, which is why he doesn’t look sexy when he runs either, and it’s why I’ve never been super attracted to him, but that evidently doesn’t bother people because they’re still so into him, even though, let’s face it, it’s not 2005 anymore.
Brad’s great gait, on the other hand, is one of the reasons why his sexy has endured. Yes, he’s handsome. Yes, he’s doing what he can to hold onto his hair. Yes, his clothes fit well, they hang off him perfectly – and while there’s no doubt that there’s a studied casualness about how he dresses, it also never feels staged. But it’s also the way he holds his body; it’s his gait, and more. It’s how he stands. It’s how he leans. It’s how he looks cool, so cool, even when he’s pointing, or gesturing. There’s something about the precise angles he can hit when he’s pointing his finger, or raising his arm, or bending his leg that give you the sense that this is someone who is always smoothly rolling from one moment to the next. Whether it’s natural or rehearsed, Brad Pitt’s lack of self-consciousness is exceptionally well-performed. He never looks awkward because you believe he never feels awkward.
Check out these shots. Some are posed, some are taken in motion, and yet there’s no difference in his body energy between them. He looks as relaxed and chill when he’s still, facing a wall of photographers, as he does when he’s mid-stride. Take this shot below, for example. He’s stepping sideways, likely being instructed by a photographer to shift into frame, never a position anyone wants to be snapped in, and somehow he makes it seem fluid – even in a still, you can sense the grace in his movements.
Right? You could put that in a magazine, taken during a professional photo shoot, and it would work. Most of the time, when he’s out in public like this, the shots of Brad look like they’re from a photo shoot.
That’s why he stole every scene he was in inBurn After Reading. Think about his scene partners in that movie. All I have to say is Frances McDormand. And he not only kept up, he killed it. Think about how you see him in his natural state and compare that to how convincingly idiotic he was inBurn After Reading.That’s a lot of work, and it’s probably underrated. Because he so very rarely looks not super, super cool. Think about the work he would have to put in to be that much of a dumbass. Or is there at all a chance that it’s the opposite? That in real life, he’s actually “Chad” and that it takes work to look as cool as Brad? (If that’s the case, why can’t Leo do the same?) All of this is more than just aesthetic appeal. It adds to his overall appeal. For 30 years we’ve been watching Brad Pitt be this cool this effortlessly. Tom Cruise doesn’t have that and Johnny Depp lost it. Brad, meanwhile, is as loungey and at-ease as he’s ever been and that image has most definitely been an asset both in his professional and his personal life. It would be hard to believe someone this chill could be such a dick, right?
