After making a splash on the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival last week as he returned to movie star form with his upcoming Quentin Tarantino film "Once Upon a Time in… Hollywood," Brad Pitt has jetted off to Italy with a dear friend.
Brad looked great as he walked through Venice on May 28 with pal Thomas Houseago, a British artist (right), as well as another male pal and Thomas's partner, art therapist Muna El Fituri (in back).
The group were in town to visit the Biennale, an annual large-scale art exhibition. Brad, casually dressed in a brown T-shirt, black jeans, sneakers, a jacket and his trademark flat cap, is seen here heading to a water taxi during their tour of the city.
Two years ago in his first interview following his shocking split from second wife Angelina Jolie, Brad opened up about how Thomas helped him begin to heal from the painful divorce amid a custody battle over his six children.
Brad was interviewed by GQ Style at his compound in Los Angeles's Los Feliz area where he and Angelina had lived with their kids before their heartbreaking separation.
"This house was always chaotic and crazy, voices and bangs coming from everywhere, and then, as you see, there are days like this: very… very solemn," he said. Asked how his days were different following the bitter breakup, he revealed he'd turned to art to fill his time as he fought for his kids behind the scenes.
"If I'm not creating something, doing something, putting it out there, then I'll just be creating scenarios of fiery demise in my mind. You know, a horrible end," Brad told GQ Style. "And so I've been going to a friend's sculpting studio, spending a lot of time over there. My friend [Thomas] is a serious sculptor. They've been kind. I've literally been squatting in there for a month now. I'm taking a s— on their sanctity."
He revealed he'd been "making stuff," as he put it. "It's something I've wanted to do for 10 years.
"I'm making everything," he added. "I'm working with clay, plaster, rebar, wood. Just trying to learn the materials. You know, I surprise myself. But it's a very, very lonely occupation. There's a lot of manual labor, which is good for me right now. A lot of lugging clay around, chopping and moving and cleaning up after yourself.
"But I surprise myself. Yesterday I wasn't settled. I had a lotta chaotic thoughts — trying to make sense of where we are at this time — and the thing I was doing wasn't controlled and balanced and perfect," he added. "It came out chaotic."