Even Brad Pitt can't keep up with the chatter about his romantic life.
While dating rumors between Pitt and Alia Shawkat ("Arrested Development," "Search Party") surfaced in 2019, the actress is now setting the record straight and revealing how clueless the "Fight Club" actor was about the entire relationship speculation.
In a recent interview with The New Yorker, Shawkat, 32, talked about the “weird” Pitt romance rumors that surfaced on the precipice of the pandemic.
According to People, the actress was first spotted with Pitt at an art gallery in 2019, although a source told the outlet their relationship was purely platonic at the time.
Nonetheless, the rumor spread because that's what happens when you're Brad Pitt. Not to mention, like many things that happened during the early days of the pandemic, simple lockdown boredom and a rise in online activity were fuel for such juicy gossip.
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Well this time, Shawkat laid it out to The New Yorker that it was all completely false.
"It came in hot, and left as fast as it came in," Shawkat stated, "It happened during Covid, and I was alone with it. It was so weird. Now it's like a weird dream, where I'm, like, 'Did that happen?'”
As far as Pitt’s “involvement,” the two are acquainted, so she was able to eventually broach the odd topic with the "World War Z" star.
“I was like, 'You know everyone thinks we're dating?’ And there's this whole thing, and I'm being followed,'" she explained. "And he was, like, 'I'm sorry. It happens. If you hang out with me, it happens.'"
“He had no awareness of it at all,” she said. “Which is so funny. Because he doesn't read that s***."
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Nevertheless, Shawkat recognized the power of such celebrity chatter when she discovered even her family jumped on the rumor mill for a spin.
"The other day I was at my grandmother's house,” she said. “She's been in this country for over thirty years and still barely speaks English.... She's sitting there, watching her Turkish soap opera. And next to her is this old gossip magazine with Brad's face, and my face in a small circle. And it says 'Brad's New Girl!'"
“And then on the inside,” she continued, “it's old Instagram photos of me and friends at dinner. It was like, 'ALL ABOUT ALIA,'" she added. "This whole made-up story about how we were healing each other by spending time together.... I looked at my grandmother like, 'Why do you have this?' She's like, 'It's you and this movie star! And it's your face.' I was embarrassed by it. I told her she had to throw it away. And she laughed."
Such situations can seem harmlessly funny or even a little enviable to outsiders, but Shawkat said it was no laughing matter.
"I'm not an actor who has ever dealt with the paparazzi," she said. "They don't know who the f*** I am. There's something ironic about it."
Shawkat has been enjoying an increasingly successful career, having also worked on “Transparent,” “Being the Ricardos,” and recently wrapped the comedic mystery HBO Max series “Search Party.” So this particular spotlight shone on her – mostly lit by the fact it’s connected to a mega-star like Brad Pitt – can be irritating.
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Shawkat insisted, "it has nothing to do with Brad.” She went on to describe the “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” star as "great," before deftly noting that "of course, the idea of me being romantically involved with an older white guy is what gets me the most attention. Not a 20-year career. That's what gets me."
"It's ironic and gross and stupid,” she succinctly concluded, before once more stating, “But yeah, again, it was super brief. And I was fine. I was shaken up by it… There are all these embarrassing photos… Then they just disappeared, and now they don't give a s***."
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