Sumith Prasad
In David Ayer’s war film ‘Fury,’ Brad Pitt’s Don “Wardaddy” Collier is a frequently smoking American soldier who speaks German fluently. After capturing a town, Don and his protégé Norman “Machine” Ellison raid a building, only to come across two German women. Since they do not understand English, Don speaks to them in German and spends some time in the house cleaning himself up. Throughout the film, Don smokes cigarettes with his fellow soldiers. Both aspects of Pitt’s character sheds light on his real life!
Brad Pitt Used to Smoke
Throughout the production of ‘Fury,’ Brad Pitt really smoked with his co-stars, especially while being a part of a “boot camp” to prepare for his character. “It is amazing how well you get to know each other, five men in a tin can. There’s something that feels safe about it and quiet and above the hubbub of a set. It was kind of nice actually, just staying in there. We’d just (talk) and smoke and stink and have a laugh,” the actor told USA Today about the filming experience of ‘Fury.’ Even though he used to smoke during the 2010s, he doesn’t anymore.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Pitt quit smoking. He made the decision after the realization that cutting down the number of cigarettes was not a helpful measure. “I don’t have that ability to do just one or two a day. It’s not in my makeup. I’m all in. And I’m going to drive into the ground. I’ve lost my privileges,” Pitt told author Ottessa Moshfegh for a GQ cover story about quitting cigarettes while chewing a nicotine mint.
A couple of years after the release of ‘Fury,’ specifically upon his second-wife Angelina Jolie filed for divorce, Pitt stopped consuming alcohol and became sober as well. At the time, he used to attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, which lasted for a year and a half. “I had a really cool men’s group here that was really private and selective, so it was safe. Because I’d seen things of other people who had been recorded while they were spilling their guts, and that’s just atrocious to me,” the actor added.
Brad Pitt Knows German
Pitt can speak German in real life. As per reports, the actor learned the language and visited Germany several times out of his interest in his part-German ancestry. “I like the language – I even find it beautiful and melodic,” he once told Express, a Cologne-based German newspaper, as per DW. He also reportedly added in the same interview that he has some “very good friends” in Germany and the German war film ‘Das Boot’ is one of his favorite films. In 2014, the actor was nominated for the “Keeper of the German Language” title, awarded by the publication “Deutsche Sprachwelt” for outstanding services to the German language.
While filming Robert Zemeckis’ 2016 war film ‘Allied,’ Pitt also tried to learn the French language. “He [Pitt] worked very, very hard and long and it is all his voice. But it is a challenge and he had a lot of pressure on him and he was very stressed out. Because not only does he have to speak French but he has to speak French with French people — and then you add in the Parisian accent. I knew the situation that he was in because I was in that situation, too,” Pitt’s co-star Marion Cotillard told Toronto Sun about her on-screen partner’s efforts to master French.
