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Brad Pitt is having a hell of a year. This summer, he starred in Quentin Tarantino\u2019s Once Upon a Time\u2026in Hollywood as Cliff Booth, a stuntman turned handyman to an aging movie star played by Leonardo DiCaprio. This fall, he plays the alienated astronaut Roy McBride in Ad Astra, a cerebral space epic backed by his own production company, Plan B. The pairing perfectly captures the two sides of Pitt\u2014the swaggering, chiseled film icon; the meditative artist\u2014and the range between them. Now, for the October issue, he\u2019s on the cover of GQ.
\nFrom a musty pool house somewhere in the California sprawl, Pitt spoke to GQ writer Zach Baron about where he stands in his career and in life. He\u2019s learned to be selective, both as a producer and as a leading man, practicing what Plan B co-president Jeremy Kleiner calls \u201can intense curatorial hunger.\u201d His approach to acting has developed\u2014he\u2019s foregone the theatrical tools and techniques of his early career for something more laid-back, feeling out a performance like music. And at 55, he\u2019s thinking about the big stuff: fatherhood and faith, masculinity and meaning.
\n\u201cThere\u2019s strength in vulnerability,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s not a posing, strength-of-muscles, \u2018I can do anything\u2019 kind of blind confidence, but it\u2019s a real confidence in knowing yourself.\u201d
\nShot by Lachlan Bailey and styled by George Cortina, Brad Pitt\u2019s GQ cover story is a rare glimpse of an icon who chooses to constantly redefine his career, and himself.\n<\/div>\n