What draws you the most to Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie?

While debating discussion thread ideas, one idea that was tossed out more than once was the question of what draws you, as a reader, here to PittWatch. That sounded a bit too much like I was looking for validation, so here’s a spin on it.

What draws you in most to Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie? Is it their movies and their acting abilities? The way they look with their modern-day twist on old school Hollywood glamor? The humanitarian work that they always find time for? The amazing way they’ve created a beautifully multi-cultural family? Was it your love of Brad that you became interested in Angelina? Or was it the other way around where you came to appreciate Brad because of Angie?

I made a poll just for fun, and I included the option to decide that you can’t choose just one reason for being drawn to this power couple.

However, since it’s a discussion thread, maybe we can talk about why you find yourself so interested in them.

This is my version. I was a fan of Brad Pitt in general for his acting and his movies. I didn’t really know much about him on an off-screen level back then. I wasn’t even particularly attracted to him when he was younger – while I could see that he was certainly a good-looking guy, he was too blond and too pretty for my own personal tastes. While I enjoyed his movies overall, I think that his role in Interview With the Vampire was one of the times I sort of sat up a little straighter and said, “wow. He’s amazing!”

Angelina Jolie, on the other hand, was an actress I had always loved. My favorite actress had been Winona Ryder for years, but then I saw Girl Interrupted where Angie essentially overshadowed everyone else in the cast, including Winona’s lead character. From there she went from being an actress I really enjoyed to my number one favorite and she’s never budged since. I read about her regularly and when Angelina started working with the UNHCR I was thrilled to see all the good she was bringing to people who were so often overlooked.

Naturally I love the whole Jolie-Pitt family too. As a mother myself, I love to read about what they do as a family together or see them out having fun as normally as celebrities possibly can. I admire the way they try to make sure that cultures are not lost, that they become an important focus of the entire family – it ends up being educational for all of them.

And there’s no doubt on red carpet nights that I love to look at Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, dressed to the nines and looking like they could very easily step back in time to the glamor of old Hollywood.

So while it is indeed true that I have trouble choosing one reason, it mostly comes down to having been a huge Angelina fan, learning more about Brad as they got together, and then admiring everything that they do – movies, humanitarian work, and family life.

I think that another reason that people might be so interested in them, not just as a couple, but their full family is that most of us can’t relate to the celebrity world. While I love the clothes and whatnot, when I’m sitting here in $30 jeans, I can’t relate to a $20,000 gown someone might wear on the red carpet, or a jeweler loaning out a million dollar necklace to an actress on Oscar night. But I’m a mother and I can relate to kids saying funny things like Zahara does or a kid who likes to run like Shiloh (and then falls and skins a knee like Shiloh). I can relate to being up in the middle of the night, to carrying a tired child, to buying toys. I think a lot of us can; even those without kids were kids once themselves.

The family side of the Jolie-Pitts is something normal, something that isn’t so far out of our reach, even if not all of us could afford to care for six children like they do.

What about you? What are your thoughts on the draw to Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie?

Image used with permission: Newscom