Olly Richards
Se7en Lessons Brad Pitt Can Teach All Men About The Art of Cool
Brad Pitt has been a movie star for nearly thirty years. Not an actor, a movie star. He has that rare quality that makes him always cool on screen, regardless of whether the film he’s in is an instant classic (Fight Club, Ocean’s 11) or bizarre dross (most of his output in the early 90s). At the age of 52, he returns this week in Allied, a WWII thriller, and he’s as iconic as ever. Let's take some notes.
7. THE FIRST RULE OF FIGHT CLUB IS: GREAT ABS SOLVE ANYTHING
As Tyler Durden, the fantasy alter-ego of Edward Norton’s depressed corporate drone, Pitt dressed like a trolley dash in an out-of-town charity shop. Yet he made everything look like he plucked it right off the catwalk due to one reason: an idealised body male body straight out of an anatomical textbook. So the lesson is, you too can wear anything if you develop a stomach that looks like a topographical map of the alps. Best of luck (there are some six-pack tips here to get you started).
6. YOU NEED GOOD SUITS. MORE THAN ONE.
Some would say Ocean’s Eleven was a film about a casino heist. Actually, it was a film about the power of good tailoring. People trust you when you’re wearing a great suit, even when you’re trying to rob them. Pitt wears his suits as he would any other clothes – not like he’s been forced to because he has to impress someone. Learn from this. And have more than one suit. Whatever magazine articles may like to tell you, there is no such thing as a suit that works for every occasion.
5. SHORT AND SIMPLE HAIR SUITS EVERYONE
Pitt has really good hair. For a 25-year-old his hair would be excellent. For a man of 52 its thickness is near miraculous. Yet has his hair ever looked better than it did in Mr and Mrs Smith, when it was buzzed short? We may be lacking his God-given bone structure, but most of us can make some version of the buzz work. It means you always look neat, although if you go lower than a grade-two you’re slipping into Jason Statham territory. Which is fine, but it’s different.
4. EMBRACE AGEING
If you look at Pitt in Fury, the war movie in which he plays a noble army sergeant, and in Thelma and Louise, in which he plays a grifting stud, there is a huge difference. There should be; there are 25 years between them. Some movie stars seem desperate to freeze time at the point when they were most successful (think Tom Cruise), but Pitt has let himself go a bit craggy around the eyes, while still keeping himself fit. That’s much cooler than a waxy botox head.
3. ENJOYING THINGS IS COOL
Pitt barely appeared in True Romance, popping up for just a couple of scenes as Floyd, a stoner who was permanently glued to his bong and the sofa. Yet everyone remembered him because he seemed like the happiest person on earth (being baked out of his gourd probably helped). Be the fun guy in the room. Don’t try hard to be cool and you’ll be much more enjoyable to be around.
2. EVEN THE GENETICALLY PERFECT CAN’T PULL OFF EVERYTHING
Pitt plays the near-godlike hero Achilles in the skirts-and-sandals bore-athon Troy. He is absurdly muscled and golden and shiny and he has the hair of a teenage valley girl. It looks ridiculous. You can be the most handsome man in the world but that doesn’t mean you can pull off everything. Be modest with your genetic gifts.
1. EVERY GUY LOOKS GOOD IN BLACK TIE
In both Meet Joe Black and Allied, Pitt gets trussed up in a clean monochrome tailoring. And it looks unimproveable. His suits are probably outrageously expensive but the lesson remains the same: keep it simple and you’ll always look sharp. The good thing about black suits is that they always look a little more expensive than they are.
not mine.credit and source: ASK MEN UK
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