For the last time, Alia Shawkat wants you to know she is NOT dating Brad Pitt!
The two were spotted hanging out a lot starting last September, at plays, comedy shows, and art exhibits around El Lay. The fact they always seemed to be a twosome, arriving and leaving together, led many to believe they must be dating.
Neither ever confirmed these rumors, but they also kept hanging out during lockdown. And if you’re quarantining together, you’re dating — right? Isn’t that the rule? Otherwise you’re not exactly following social distancing guidelines…
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Well, Alia is saying once and for all, rumors of her sexy times with the Once Upon A Time In Hollywood star are greatly exaggerated. In a new interview with Vulture, she states unequivocally:
“We’re not dating. We’re just friends.”
Y’all buying the denial? Is she just being private? Well, the interviewer believes it for a truly hilarious and VERY real reason: Alia confides in her “how horny she’s been during lockdown.” Ha!
So how did this friendship begin? Apparently the two were introduced through a mutual pal, Spike Jonze. Alia has known the director since she co-starred with him in the movie Three Kings (at just 9 years old!). Apparently Brad and the now 31-year-old just hit it off right away. She recalls:
“We just became friends, and Brad introduced me to his group of friends, and it grew from there.”
The other thing that grew was the wild speculation. Once tabloids realized how frequently the actors had been hanging out, stories suddenly began to crop up about their new relationship — which was a big shock to the Arrested Development star:
“All my friends were like ‘What’s going on?’ and sending me photos. I just felt overwhelmed. It’s that feeling of being naked in school, like, Oh my God, everyone’s looking at me…I’ve gotten press, but not like that. Not so uncontrollable.””
These types of rumors always follow around Brad Pitt, who once again became the most eligible bachelor in the world a couple years ago when he famously ended his longtime relationship with Angelina Jolie.
He’s been linked to several women, none of whom he has actually dated, apparently. But Shawkat has found the tabloid coverage of their relationship to be a bit less than flattering:
“To them it’s like, ‘We don’t get it! This girl is weird! She’s so different! Why are they hanging out?’ You get too close to the prom king, and all of a sudden, everyone’s like, ‘Well, who is this bitch?”
Ha! That’s actually a pretty fitting metaphor for Brad. Also like the prom king, we ALL want to know who he’s f**king. Just being honest. But the Search Party star says the second time she became a trending topic just a few months later was far worse.
That was when an old video resurfaced showing her at a SXSW panel in 2016. While telling a story she quoted a Drake song — using the N-word in the process. Alia, who has been a vocal supporter of the Black Lives Matter movement, says getting called out on social media was “humbling in an intense way.”
She also says this was more shocking that learning she was dating Brad Pitt — because she hadn’t even realized it happened!
“I didn’t remember saying it. I was like, ‘That’s impossible. What the f**k are they talking about?'”
Thankfully Alia sees now how that ability to be so casual about it was the real problem — and made her realize an amount of privilege she hadn’t even been aware of:
“That’s what’s upsetting about it. In my mind, I wasn’t like, ‘What the f**k did I just say? Take that back, I’m sorry, never should have said that.’ Instead, I just carried it on like a joke and didn’t think about it afterward. That was more upsetting, in a way, than saying the word.”
She stepped away from social media after making an apology — which she knows also didn’t sit right with many people. But she says she’s really feeling the shame of the action deeply and learning from it. And hopes to take what she learns and get back out there to lend support once again:
“I’m learning how to accept my shame from it and be better because of it. It would be terrible if this one thing stopped me from actually doing anything to help.”
After taking some time to center herself, she also realizes how much of the pain was to her vanity — something which frankly doesn’t matter that much in the long run.
“I realize there was a part of me that was like, ‘I’m cool! Everyone likes me! I’m cool!’ And I’m like, ‘No, no, people don’t like me right now! People don’t like me! F**k!’ That was hard. But now I’m like, ‘That’s okay. I don’t need to be liked by everybody.'”
And hey, she’s still got Brad, right?
[Image via KIKA/FayesVision/WENN.]
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