The on-screen pairings of Brad Pitt

A lot was made of Brad Pitt’s relationship with Angelina Jolie when they met and fell in love on the set of Mr. and Mrs. Smith, the action film about two married assassins out to kill one another until they join forces to save each other’s lives.  I really liked the film and I think the on-screen pairing of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie was a big part of the appeal.  They had incredible chemistry and they smoldered on-screen.  Chemistry is important between actors in movies.  Otherwise you’re left feeling like the pieces just don’t fit together and that what you’ve just invested time in watching has been too obvious a charade.  Pitt has shared great chemistry with several other co-stars over the course of his career, some with whom he was romantically involved and others with whom he simply worked well alongside, and their chemistry made the films even better.  Here’s a look at a few of Pitt’s most memorable pairings:

 Brad Pitt and Juliett Lewis – Kalifornia

When Brad Pitt and Juliette Lewis filmed the thriller Kalifornia, they were a couple at the time.  Perhaps it was their comfort and familiarity that led to the unflinchingly real and convincing performances they delivered in the character-driven film.  They were completely believable as Early (Pitt) and Adele (Lewis), a couple who embark on a road trip with another couple to share driving duties and the cost of gas.  In actuality, Early is a serial killer and Adele is his gullible, child-like wife whom he treats like a pet because Adele lacks the intelligence and the self-awareness to realize that she’s married to a violent killer.  Adele seems lost in her own reality and simply delights in everything Early does. 

 Brad Pitt and Geena Davis – Thelma and Louise

Brad Pitt wasn’t the household name he is today when he appeared in Thelma and Louise.  He burst onto the scene in a big way when he played the sweet-talking, hitchhiking swindler who steals Thelma’s (Geena Davis) heart and all of her money.  Though J.D (Pitt) is pulling a con, his seduction of Thelma feels like it’s driven by more than just greed.  He gives her a sexual experience unlike any she’s ever had before and teaches her the art of armed robbery in bed.  Then he robs her and disappears. 

 Brad Pitt and Gywneth Paltrow – Seven

Pitt and Paltrow got engaged after the release of Seven. In the film, they play a young married couple.  Mills (Pitt) is a young, hot-headed cop and his wife, Tracy, (Paltrow) is a warm, caring woman who supplies the dark and twisted tale about a serial killer with humanity.  Though they don’t share a great deal of time together on-screen, their few scenes together, namely the dinner scene with Pitt’s partner played by Morgan Freeman, and the final scene where the serial killer reveals his last and most shocking kill, show a real love between their characters. 

 Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

This film marked the second time that Pitt and Blanchett co-starred together in a film.  Their on-screen chemistry in this film was special, in that the feelings they were charged with conveying involved several different relationships over the course of many decades.  Yes they were in love, but before their adult, romantic relationship they shared a type of father-daughter bond when Pitt was an older man and Blanchett was a young girl.  Later they became friends, then lovers, and ended with a relationship akin to that of a mother and her son. 

 Brad Pitt and Helena Bonham Carter – Fight Club

In this film, Pitt and Bonham Carter are both crazy screwballs with a purely physical, animalistic relationship.  They share no romance; they share no respect; theirs is just an arrangement of mutual benefit between a man with a splintered mind and a feisty, chain-smoking woman who’s angry probably because the men she hooks up with find brawling with each other more fun than having sex with her.

What are your favourite Brad Pitt pairings?  Let us know in the comments section.