Brad Pitt has confessed that he feels embarrassed for his inability to recognize people’s faces, which has led to awkward situations.
As a prominent figure in Hollywood, Brad Pitt is no stranger to fame and success. However, despite his celebrity status, he has revealed that he grapples with a rare condition that remains largely misunderstood.
This condition has hindered his social interactions, as people often misinterpret his struggles.
The 61-year-old Oscar-winning actor has previously discussed how dealing with prosopagnosia, also known as face blindness, has left him feeling ashamed and misunderstood.
What exactly is prosopagnosia? According to the Cleveland Clinic, it is a condition where an individual cannot properly recognize faces.
While individuals with this condition are not visually impaired, they find it challenging to identify familiar faces, including those of coworkers, friends, and even family members.
The clinic explains: “Prosopagnosia (pro-so-pag-no-zee-ah) is a condition where your brain can’t recognize faces or facial expressions in spite of having normal vision.”
“This can make it hard for you to recognize the faces of familiar coworkers, friends or even close loved ones.”
“Prosopagnosia falls under a family of conditions, agnosias, which interfere with how your brain processes information from your senses. Most of these conditions happen because of damage to your brain from any number of causes. However, prosopagnosia can also happen without that damage.”
Pitt believes he might have developmental prosopagnosia. According to the National Library of Medicine, ‘the prevalence of developmental prosopagnosia (DP), lifelong face recognition deficits, is widely reported to be 2–2.5%’, meaning it affects roughly one in 50 individuals.
Pitt has noted that many people are skeptical of his condition, which adds to the difficulty in gaining their understanding.
In an interview with Esquire, he stated: “So many people hate me because they think I’m disrespecting them.”
“You get this thing, like, ‘You’re being egotistical. You’re being conceited.’ But it’s a mystery to me, man. I can’t grasp a face and yet I come from such a design/aesthetic point of view.”
Pitt has not received an official diagnosis, but experts have noted that he exhibits some signs of the condition. He has described experiences that are common among patients, such as sensing that something is amiss but being uncertain of what it is.
In 2013, Pitt mentioned that he attempted a proactive approach by asking people where they had previously met, but it didn’t yield the desired results.
In his conversation with Esquire, he shared: “I swear to God, I took one year where I just said, This year, I’m just going to cop to it and say to people: ‘Okay, where did we meet?’ But it just got worse. People were more offended.”
Pitt has expressed his desire to avoid leaving negative impressions or being seen as aloof, emphasizing his hope for better understanding.