Brad Pitt has detailed his struggle with a rare ‘face blindness’ condition – admitting that ‘nobody believes’ him when he talks about it.
The actor, 58, believes he suffers from prosopagnosia, an inability to recognise faces that usually affects the person for most or all of their life.
Many people with the condition can’t even recognise family members, partners or friends and cope by using alternative ways to recognise people, such as remembering the way they walk, or their hairstyle, voice or clothing.
Struggles: Brad Pitt has detailed his struggle with a rare ‘face blindness’ condition – admitting that ‘nobody believes’ him when he talks about it
While Brad has not been formally diagnosed with the condition he has long believed himself to be a sufferer and admitted he worries that it’s led to people thinking he’s remote or aloof around people.
He told GQ magazine: ‘Nobody believes me! I wanna meet another [person with the prosopagnosia].’
Brad previously spoke about his battle with the condition in 2013, telling Esquire: ‘So many people hate me because they think I’m disrespecting them.
‘Every now and then, someone will give me context, and I’ll say, “Thank you for helping me.” But I p**s more people off.’
Aloof: Brad (pictured in 2016) has long believed himself to be a sufferer and admitted he worries that it’s led to people thinking he’s remote or aloof around people
He continued: ‘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. I am going to get it tested.’
In 2017 a study has found that children who were considered underweight when they were born are poorer at recognising faces when they are older.
Researchers believe having a low weight at birth is linked to impairments in the way parts of the brain develop, including those areas that deal with visual information.
About 2.5 per cent of the population is thought to be affected to some degree, with comedian Stephen Fry and former Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt among those who have admitted suffering from face blindness.
Elsewhere in his GQ interview, Brad gave a bleak assessment of the human condition as he moves on from the collapse of his five year marriage to actress Angelina Jolie.
The Hollywood star embraced a life of abstinence that began shortly after their divorce was initiated in 2016, and explained his newfound positivity is tempered by the belief that all of us experience wrenching heartache at some point in our lives.
‘I think all our hearts are broken,’ he said. ‘I always felt very alone in my life, alone growing up as a kid, alone even out here, and it’s really not till recently that I have had a greater embrace of my friends and family.
‘What’s that line, it was either Rilke or Einstein, believe it or not, but it was something about when you can walk with the paradox, when you carry real pain and real joy simultaneously, this is maturity, this is growth.’
Despite the overriding sense of isolation, he admitted to finding community and friendship through…
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