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As we look forward to seeing him reprise his Oscar-winning role in David Fincher’s new film The Adventures of Cliff Booth—a sequel to Once Upon a Time in Hollywood written once again by Quentin Tarantino and coming to Netflix in August—we’d like to share some details about Brad Pitt’s condition.
A few years ago, in fact, the star’s fans were shocked when Brad Pitt confessed to having prosopagnosia: this is a very rare neurological disorder that causes a sort of “face blindness” and essentially prevents those who suffer from it from recognizing other people’s faces. In 2022, during an interview with GQ, Brad Pitt revealed that he has prosopagnosia: the actor explained that, although he has never received an official medical diagnosis to confirm his condition, the disorder profoundly affects his life both socially and professionally.
We don’t know exactly how severe Brad Pitt’s prosopagnosia is, but in general, this condition prevents those affected from recognizing people’s faces, including friends and family members (in the most severe cases, people with prosopagnosia can’t even recognize their own reflection in the mirror). In Brad Pitt’s specific case, the star has revealed that this condition often leads others to perceive him as aloof or even arrogant, because when he meets or speaks with someone, it always seems as though he doesn’t remember them… in reality, it’s not arrogance; unfortunately, he literally cannot recognize the face of the person he’s speaking with.
According to the star, his condition has worsened in recent years, and for this reason, Brad Pitt has begun to isolate himself from social situations in order to avoid awkward moments with others. Currently, there appears to be no definitive cure for this cognitive-perceptual deficit, but there are alternative methods that those affected use to recognize others: for example, auditory techniques, identifying people through voice recognition.
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