Most of us can't perform our chosen career forever. Most of us wouldn't want to. However, acting is one of those jobs that one could potentially do pretty much right up until the point that we leave this world. The roles certainly change, but actors of every age are always needed somewhere. However, Once Upon a Time...In Hollywood's Brad Pitt doesn't sound like he thinks he's one of those actors who will be doing this forever.
In Quentin Tarantino's new movie Brad Pitt plays a stuntman whose best days are likely behind him. It's the sort of role that might make one consider their own future. Variety recently asked Pitt if he thinks he'll work until his last breath, or might decide to retire one day. While Pitt leaves the door open for anything, it sounds like he expects his career will wrap up at some point. According to Pitt...
I dunno. I enjoy doing other things. I think one day I’ll just wake up and organically it’ll be done. Maybe I won’t wake up and that's why it’ll be done.
While acting is a job one can potentially still do into your 70s, 80s or even older, when you do it at the level that Brad Pitt does it, you also get paid well enough that you certainly don't need to work forever. When Pitt says that he enjoys doing other things, it certainly sounds like he's thinking he might want to spend a portion of his life not working and focusing on those other things. That could be turning some passion into a new career, or it could just be enjoying his success in other ways.
Pitt says that he's not worried about becoming one of the characters in his new film, which is why it's important to have other things that you enjoy doing. It sounds like the actor sort of expects the day will come when Hollywood will sort of be done with him, but his goal is to not care when that happens. When he "organically" is done with acting, he'll just move on to his other things.
It's certainly a healthy way to look at a profession which has been known to be quite unhealthy for some. In Once Upon a Time...In Hollywood, Leonardo DiCaprio plays a former star that Hollywood has apparently passed by, and he isn't really able to cope with that. He clearly doesn't have those other things in his life that make him happy, so when his career starts to fall apart, so does he.
While Brad Pitt may be expecting to be done with acting one day, that day likely isn't coming anytime soon. Brad Pitt is 55-years-old and he's been a star for the better part of 30 years, but he's still got plenty of time in front of him to do great work, unless, of course, he simply decides that he's done.
