When you’re an eternally cool A-list actor who’s ruled Hollywood and collected accolades for decades, what’s left to say that hasn’t already been said? For Brad Pitt, the answer is this: a Titanic joke.
At last night's Golden Globe Awards, Pitt won in the Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture category for his performance as stuntman Cliff Booth in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, marking his first Golden Globe win since he won in the same category in 1996 for 12 Monkeys. In his acceptance speech, Pitt thanked director Quentin Tarantino, as well his co-star Leonardo DiCaprio, whom he affectionately referred to as “LDC.” The room erupted in laughter when Pitt quipped to DiCaprio, “I would’ve shared the raft.”
The raft scene in question – in which DiCaprio’s character freezes to death in the ocean for lack of space on a life-saving raft – has confounded movie buffs since Titanic’s release in 1997. In recent years, scientists have definitively busted the scene, arguing that the raft could have held both DiCaprio’s Jack and Kate Winslet’s Rose afloat.
In an endearingly itinerant speech, Pitt went on to make a shoutout to his parents, who were in the Ozarks and not in attendance at the ceremony. He then mentioned the fact that he was attending the awards solo, riffing, “I wanted to bring my mother, but any woman I’m photographed beside, they say I’m dating. That would just be awkward.” Shady as ever, Globes producers then panned to Pitt’s ex-wife, Jennifer Aniston.
As his speech wound down, Pitt cast a heartfelt parting shot over his shoulder before exiting the stage: “If you see an opportunity to be kind to someone tomorrow, take it. I think we need it.”
You heard the man – go out there and be kind to somebody. Today.
Adrienne Westenfeld is the Books and Fiction Editor at Esquire, where she oversees books coverage, edits fiction, and curates the Esquire Book Club.
