Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#52
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Brad Pitt represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 40 years in, and Brad is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Brad Pitt appears in 58 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Brad. Star wattage repeatedly aimed at difficult, unglamorous material on purpose. Se7en is the clearest case: a film rated 9.1 by our editors, where the performance carries weight the script only implies.
The recognisable elements are versatility, transformation, quiet performance. Watch two of these films back to back and the method separates from the material — the same instrument, tuned differently for mystery, drama, thriller. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Edward Berger, David Fincher, David Ayer and others, Brad Pitt helped set a standard other performers now audition against. 2 Academy Awards confirm what the films already argue.
Se7en (1995) as Mills · Fight Club (1999) as Tyler Durden · Fight Club (1999) as Tyler Durden
Career snapshot
Ranked #52 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
58
1987–2027
Career length
39 yrs
Active since 1987
Academy Awards
2
Competitive wins
Oscar nominations
4
Career total
Highest Nutevio score
9.1
Se7en
Average Nutevio score
6.8
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
8.8
Fight Club
Most frequent director
David Fincher
6 films together
Longest collaboration
6×
With David Fincher
Most common genre
Drama
33 titles
Average runtime
2h 0m
Across catalogue work
Golden Globe wins
2
Career total
Nutevio metric
Ten weighted categories, applied identically to everyone we cover.
Nutevio Performer Score
7.7
out of 10
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio metric
Cultural impact and legacy, measured separately from craft — how far the work travelled once it left the cinema.
Nutevio Influence Score
8.3
out of 10
Substantial influence: the work changed casting, not only credits.
How far the work travelled past the people who saw it first.
What survives once the release-week conversation has burned off.
Institutional acknowledgement, weighted but never decisive.
Years of chosen, relevant work rather than years merely employed.
Statuettes, read as evidence rather than verdict.
Roles named without needing the film named alongside them.
Directors who wrote parts because this performer existed.
The reading other performers now have to answer.
Actor DNA
A fingerprint derived from the roles themselves — register, range and the kind of film they carry.
The shape of a career
Every performance plotted in time. Hover a point to read the title behind it.
Peak years
Where the scores, the awards and the sheer volume of work agree with each other.
Best decade
1990s
7.5 average MV
The 1990s are where the work and the material meet. Fight Club, Being John Malkovich, Fight Club — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1990s
7.5
Across 17 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
1990s
7.5
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
1980s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. Less Than Zero.
Most productive era
1990s
17 films
The busiest stretch of the catalogue — volume that reads as appetite rather than availability.
Range, mapped
Genres down the side, decades across the top. Warmer cells mean stronger titles.
| Genre | 1980s | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 6.41 film | 7.511 films | 7.37 films | 6.99 films | 3.05 films |
| Action | — | 7.51 film | 6.95 films | 7.26 films | 5.75 films |
| Thriller | — | 7.98 films | 7.17 films | 6.44 films | 1.94 films |
| Comedy | — | 6.62 films | 6.85 films | 7.07 films | 5.86 films |
| Crime | 6.41 film | 7.67 films | 6.97 films | 5.72 films | 6.51 film |
| Romance | — | 7.43 films | 6.83 films | 6.22 films | — |
| Horror | — | 7.51 film | — | 7.11 film | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
Career begins
1987Working from 1987
The start of the professional record — years before the catalogue picks the story up.
First film in Nutevio
1987Less Than Zero
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Partygoer / Preppie Kid at Fight (uncredited).
First Nutevio masterpiece · Highest rated performance · Career peak
1995Se7en
The first film here to clear 9.0 on our scale — a threshold fewer than one film in ten reaches. 9.1 on the Nutevio scale, the top of the catalogue for this performer. Weighing billing against the film's own quality, this is the point where everything aligned at once.
First Academy Award nomination
2012Moneyball
Best Actor — the moment the industry started writing the same sentences our editors had been writing.
First Academy Award
201412 Years a Slave
Best Picture. Confirmation rather than revelation, which is how the best of these usually arrive.
Most recent film
2027The Riders
The current state of the argument, as Fred Scully.
Our order
Every performance in the catalogue, ordered by Nutevio Score.
Every title
Filter by genre or decade, and compare any two titles side by side.
58 of 58 films
as Mills
Directed by David Fincher
as Tyler Durden
Directed by David Fincher
as LT. Aldo Raine
Directed by Quentin Tarantino
as Tyler Durden
Directed by David Fincher
as Mills
Directed by David Fincher
From the library
Every movie and TV credit stored for this name in the Nutevio catalogue — filter by media, role or sort by rating.
Showing 24 of 114 titles · 128 total credits · active 1985–2027
The Riders
2027 · Fred Scully · Producer
The Adventures of Cliff Booth
2026 · Cliff Booth · Producer
Heart of the Beast
2026 · James Belmont · Producer
Jackass: Best and Last
2026 · Self (archive footage)
Olmo
2026 · Executive Producer
Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma
2026 · Executive Producer
F1
2025 · Sonny Hayes · Producer
The Voice of Hind Rajab
2025 · Executive Producer
Mickey 17
2025 · Executive Producer
Cover-Up
2025 · Executive Producer
Anemone
2025 · Executive Producer
Hedda
2025 · Executive Producer
Preparation for the Next Life
2025 · Executive Producer
H Is for Hawk
2025 · Executive Producer
Apocalypse in the Tropics
2025 · Executive Producer
It's Never Over, Jeff Buckley
2025 · Executive Producer
Bono: Stories of Surrender
2025 · Producer
One to One: John & Yoko
2025 · Executive Producer
Adolescence
2025 · TV · Executive Producer
Wolfs
2024 · Pam's Man · Producer
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
2024 · Executive Producer
Nickel Boys
2024 · Executive Producer
Bob Marley: One Love
2024 · Executive Producer
3 Body Problem
2024 · TV · Executive Producer
The defining work
#1
Mills
Se7en (1995)
Performance score9.2
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Mills gives Brad Pitt a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Tyler Durden
Fight Club (1999)
Performance score9.1
Fight Club asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Tyler Durden is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
LT. Aldo Raine
Inglourious Basterds (2009)
Performance score8.8
Inglourious Basterds asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. LT. Aldo Raine is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Tyler Durden
Fight Club (1999)
Performance score8.8
Fight Club asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Tyler Durden is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movieStart here
A guided path through the work, ordered so each film explains the next.
Best entry point
as Mills
Start here. Se7en is the clearest statement of what Brad Pitt does — accessible, 127 minutes, and rated 9.1 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Brad at the most legible performance, then move forward in time so each film reads as a response to the one before it rather than a repetition of it.
Se7en (1995)
Same director as Se7en, different problem to solve. Watching them in order shows how much of the effect was the collaboration.
Fight Club (1999)
Same director as Se7en, different problem to solve. Watching them in order shows how much of the effect was the collaboration.
Fight Club (1999)
Same director as Fight Club, different problem to solve. Watching them in order shows how much of the effect was the collaboration.
Inglourious Basterds (2009)
Keeps the drama register of Fight Club but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
David Fincher
Director
6 films together
Notably Se7en
David Leitch
Director
3 films together
Notably Deadpool 2
Tony Scott
Director
2 films together
Notably True Romance
Andrew Dominik
Director
2 films together
Notably The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Ridley Scott
Director
2 films together
Notably Thelma & Louise
Quentin Tarantino
Director
2 films together
Notably Inglourious Basterds
David Ayer
Director
2 films together
Notably Fury
Ralph Bakshi
Director
1 film together
Notably Cool World
Robert Redford
Director
1 film together
Notably A River Runs Through It
Neil Jordan
Director
1 film together
Notably Interview with the Vampire
Edward Zwick
Director
1 film together
Notably Legends of the Fall
Terry Gilliam
Director
1 film together
Notably Twelve Monkeys
Barry Levinson
Director
1 film together
Notably Sleepers
Alan J. Pakula
Director
1 film together
Notably The Devil's Own
Jean-Jacques Annaud
Director
1 film together
Notably Seven Years in Tibet
Martin Brest
Director
1 film together
Notably Meet Joe Black
Spike Jonze
Director
1 film together
Notably Being John Malkovich
Guy Ritchie
Director
1 film together
Notably Snatch
Gore Verbinski
Director
1 film together
Notably The Mexican
George Clooney
Director
1 film together
Notably Confessions of a Dangerous Mind
Tim Johnson
Director
1 film together
Notably Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas
Wolfgang Petersen
Director
1 film together
Notably Troy
Doug Liman
Director
1 film together
Notably Mr. & Mrs. Smith
Alejandro G. Iñárritu
Director
1 film together
Notably Babel
Joel Coen
Director
1 film together
Notably Burn After Reading
Tom McGrath
Director
1 film together
Notably Megamind
Terrence Malick
Director
1 film together
Notably The Tree of Life
George Miller
Director
1 film together
Notably Happy Feet Two
Marc Forster
Director
1 film together
Notably World War Z
Steve McQueen
Director
1 film together
Notably 12 Years a Slave
Angelina Jolie
Director
1 film together
Notably By the Sea
Martin Scorsese
Director
1 film together
Notably The Audition
Adam McKay
Director
1 film together
Notably The Big Short
Robert Zemeckis
Director
1 film together
Notably Allied
Adam Nee
Director
1 film together
Notably The Lost City
Damien Chazelle
Director
1 film together
Notably Babylon
Jon Watts
Director
1 film together
Notably Wolfs
Joseph Kosinski
Director
1 film together
Notably F1
Jeff Tremaine
Director
1 film together
Notably Jackass: Best and Last
Edward Berger
Director
1 film together
Notably The Riders
Morgan Freeman
Actor
1 film together
Notably Se7en
Gwyneth Paltrow
Actor
1 film together
Notably Se7en
John Cassini
Actor
1 film together
Notably Se7en
Peter Crombie
Actor
1 film together
Notably Se7en
Reg E. Cathey
Actor
1 film together
Notably Se7en
R. Lee Ermey
Actor
1 film together
Notably Se7en
Daniel Zacapa
Actor
1 film together
Notably Se7en
Andrew Kevin Walker
Actor
1 film together
Notably Se7en
George Christy
Actor
1 film together
Notably Se7en
Endre Hules
Actor
1 film together
Notably Se7en
Hawthorne James
Actor
1 film together
Notably Se7en
Bob Mack
Actor
1 film together
Notably Se7en
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
David Fincher
Director
6 films together · 7.2 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 6 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Se7enDavid Leitch
Director
3 films together · 7.3 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 3 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Deadpool 2Quentin Tarantino
Director
2 films together · 8.0 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Inglourious BasterdsTony Scott
Director
2 films together · 7.2 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
True RomanceAndrew Dominik
Director
2 films together · 6.5 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert FordRidley Scott
Director
2 films together · 6.4 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Thelma & LouiseDavid Ayer
Director
2 films together · 3.9 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
FurySteve McQueen
Director
1 film together · 8.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
12 Years a SlaveJoseph Kosinski
Director
1 film together · 7.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
F1Guy Ritchie
Director
1 film together · 7.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
SnatchTerry Gilliam
Director
1 film together · 7.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Twelve MonkeysBarry Levinson
Director
1 film together · 7.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
SleepersNeil Jordan
Director
1 film together · 7.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Interview with the VampireAdam McKay
Director
1 film together · 7.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Big ShortWolfgang Petersen
Director
1 film together · 7.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
TroySpike Jonze
Director
1 film together · 7.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Being John MalkovichMartin Brest
Director
1 film together · 7.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Meet Joe BlackDamien Chazelle
Director
1 film together · 7.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
BabylonEdward Zwick
Director
1 film together · 7.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Legends of the FallAlejandro G. Iñárritu
Director
1 film together · 7.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
BabelMarc Forster
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
World War ZTim Johnson
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Sinbad: Legend of the Seven SeasJean-Jacques Annaud
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Seven Years in TibetTom McGrath
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
MegamindRobert Redford
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
A River Runs Through ItDoug Liman
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Mr. & Mrs. SmithJeff Tremaine
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Jackass: Best and LastRobert Zemeckis
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
AlliedTerrence Malick
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Tree of LifeJoel Coen
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Burn After ReadingGeorge Clooney
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Confessions of a Dangerous MindJon Watts
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
WolfsAdam Nee
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Lost CityMartin Scorsese
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The AuditionGeorge Miller
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Happy Feet TwoAlan J. Pakula
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Devil's OwnGore Verbinski
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The MexicanRalph Bakshi
Director
1 film together · 5.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Cool WorldAngelina Jolie
Director
1 film together · 5.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
By the SeaEdward Berger
Director
1 film together · 0.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The RidersSix degrees
Follow the thread outward — director, film, co-star, and the film after that.
Performer
Brad Pitt
Where this journey starts
Director
David Fincher
6 collaborations, averaging 7.2
Film
Se7en
Their highest-rated film together (1995)
Performer
Morgan Freeman
Shares the frame in Se7en
Film
The Shawshank Redemption
Where Morgan goes next, and where you can too
Performer
Larry Brandenburg
Three steps from where you began
Recognition
19 wins · 10 nominations
3 wins · 8 nominations · latest 2020
as Actor
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood · as Actor
12 Years a Slave · as Actor
as Actor
as Actor
as Actor
as Actor
Moneyball · as Actor
as Actor
as Actor
as Actor
2 wins · 1 nomination · latest 2020
as Actor
as Actor
as Actor
2 wins · latest 2020
as Actor
as Actor
1 win · latest 2010
as Actor
1 win · latest 2010
as Actor
2 wins · latest 2008
as Actor
as Actor
1 win · latest 2011
as Actor
1 win · latest 2011
as Actor
1 win · latest 2011
as Actor
1 win · latest 2009
as Actor
1 win · latest 2010
as Actor
1 win · latest 2009
as Actor
1 win · latest 1996
as Actor
1 win · latest 2007
as Actor
No wins yet · 1 nomination
as Actor
Categories of our own
Six editorial categories we apply to every performer we cover.
Most rewatchable
Se7en
as Mills
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
12 Years a Slave
as Samuel Bass
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Se7en
as Mills
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Being John Malkovich
as Brad Pitt (uncredited)
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Se7en
as Mills
If the career had to be argued in a single scene, our editors would pick one from this film and rest the case.
In their films' words
“You can build a whole film around a performer who knows when not to speak. Brad Pitt has known it for a long time.”
“What's in the box?”
“Ernest Hemingway once wrote, 'The world is a fine place and worth fighting for.' I agree with the second part.”
Head to head
Put two careers on the same scale and see where the argument actually sits.
| Nutevio Performer Score | 8.6 | 9.0 |
|---|---|---|
| Career ranking | #8 of 681 | #1 of 681 |
| Awards on file | 3 recorded | 3 recorded |
| Oscar wins | 2 | 1 |
| Oscar nominations | 4 | 5 |
| Average Nutevio score | 9.1 | 9.1 |
| Genres | Drama, Thriller, Crime, Mystery | Adventure, Drama, Fantasy, History |
| Directors | David Fincher | Christopher Nolan, Martin Scorsese |
| Performance DNA | Quiet performance, Screen presence, Rewatchability | Transformation, Drama, Screen presence |
| Career timeline | 1995–1999 | 2006–2026 |
| Most iconic role | Mills — Se7en | Odysseus — The Odyssey |
| Most rewatchable film | Se7en | Interstellar |
| Filmography | 2 catalogue films | 4 catalogue films |
Films together
Nothing in common in the library yet.
Shared directors
Nothing in common in the library yet.
Shared collections
Thriller Movies, Drama Movies, Top 100 Crime Movies, Crime Movies
Matt Damon edges ahead here — a higher floor across a comparable body of work.
Ours alone
Recognitions handed out by this desk, on criteria no awards body uses.
Career Achievement
Awarded
40 years of relevant work — not merely a long career, but a long career of choices.
Modern Classic Performer
Awarded
Defining performances delivered inside the last twenty-five years, in films already being taught rather than merely remembered.
Most Influential Career
Awarded
Recognised for changing what casting directors thought a leading performance could look like.
Drama Legend
Awarded
33 catalogue titles in drama, each one a reference point for the films that followed.
Our desk
Best ending, best opening, best twist and the rest — categories we apply to everyone we cover.
Best ending
Se7en
as Mills
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Se7en
as Mills
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
By the Sea
as Roland
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Se7en
as Mills
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Se7en
as Mills
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Deadpool 2
as Vanisher
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Confessions of a Dangerous Mind
as Bachelor Brad
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Se7en
as Mills
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
Across the library
Every Nutevio collection this name turns up in, and how high they rank there.
Collection footprint
Appears in 8 Nutevio collections
Keep reading
genre
Best Psychological Thrillers
Includes Fight Club, Se7en
Read the collectiongenre
Thriller Movies
Includes Fight Club, Se7en
Read the collectiontheme
Movies With Incredible Endings
Features Se7en at #1
Read the collectiongenre
Best Detective Movies
Features Se7en at #2
Read the collectiongenre
Top 100 Crime Movies
Features Se7en at #3
Read the collectiongenre
Mystery Movies
Features Se7en at #3
Read the collectionFrom the magazine
If you like this performer
Matt Damon
Works with the same directors — Martin Scorsese
Robert Downey Jr.
Works with the same directors — David Fincher
Michael Caine
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Morgan Freeman
Works with the same directors — David Fincher
Tom Hanks
Built a career in the same territory: animation and family
Bonnie Hunt
Built a career in the same territory: animation and family
Have your say
Community
Which Brad Pitt performance holds up best?
Our readers argue about this one. Make your case, or read the ranked debate already in progress.
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Reference
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