Brad Pitt has delivered many iconic performances in his career, but one of his characters clearly has more aura than any of the others. Pitt is certainly a movie star, but he is not content with always relying on his movie star quality alone. Some of Pitt’s best performances are when he has decidedly very little aura.
Pitt earned his first Oscar nomination for a rather unhinged performance in the brilliant sci-fi movie Twelve Monkeys. He was hilarious as a dim-witted gym employee in the Coen Brothers’ Burn After Reading. He was even chilling in the underrated Western The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.
However, there is no denying that, sometimes, it seems Pitt cannot help but ooze aura on screen, and that was never truer than with one character in particular.
Mickey O’Neill From Snatch Has So Much Aura
Pitt’s Irish Boxer Is A Highlight Of Guy Ritchie’s Movie
Brad Pitt is a terrific addition to the cast of Snatch, the second movie from director Guy Ritchie. Snatch tells a story of various intertwining characters in the criminal underbelly of London, with a valuable diamond at the center of it all. Pitt gives a great performance as Mickey O’Neill, an Irish boxer who gets mixed up with a gangster.
The fact that you don’t know what he’s saying does nothing to decrease his aura.
Mickey stands out as a memorable character initially because Pitt is intentionally using an accent that is impossible to understand. However, the fact that you don’t know what he’s saying does nothing to decrease his aura. Despite being overlooked as trash by others, Mickey is the coolest character in the story.
Mickey cements his aura in an early scene in which he takes on a much bigger fighter. After getting knocked down again and again, Mickey simply brushes it off and gets back up. He then knocks the man out with one punch. Indeed, every fight he is in, Mickey effortlessly drops his opponent with a single hit.
Despite being in a dangerous world of gangsters and murderers, Mickey never seems worried. He strolls through the movie without a care in the world, and after being underestimated by everyone, he proves he was actually two steps ahead the entire time. Pitt relishes the colorful role and brings that aura that other actors simply couldn’t pull off.
Brad Pitt Has Since Made A Career Out Of Aura Farming
Pitt Continues To Display Effortless Coolness In His Roles
While Mickey is the peak aura character in Brad Pitt’s career, the actor has since perfected these kinds of characters more than almost any other actor. Just one year after Snatch, Pitt debuted his character of Rusty Ryan in Ocean’s 11. While there are a lot of cool customers in the Ocean’s movies, Rusty outclasses them all.
F1 is the most recent example of this, as Sonny Haze is participating in one of the most nerve-wrecking sports ever, yet he remains cool and collected.
Pitt even won his first Oscar for an aura-filled performance as Cliff Booth in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. While Cliff’s best friend, Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio), is a genuine celebrity, it is Cliff who feels like the most charismatic and interesting person in Hollywood, as the Zen-like stuntman with some deadly skills.
Pitt continues to bring so much aura to his roles that he seems to glide through his movies. F1 is the most recent example of this, as Sonny Hayes is participating in one of the most nerve-wrecking sports ever, yet he remains cool and collected, never making a wrong turn. He faces danger with a casual smirk on his face.
As it turns out, Mickey from Snatch was just the beginning of Brad Pitt unleashing his aura on cinema, and there are sure to be many more roles to prove that.
Birthdate
December 18, 1963
Birthplace
Shawnee, Oklahoma, USA
