Recognized and adored by millions of fans all over the world, Brad Pitt is one of the biggest movie stars in the world. Often described as a character actor in a leading man’s body, Pitt has accrued an Oscar, a BAFTA, and two Golden Globes for acting, as well as a second Oscar, a second BAFTA, a third Golden Globe, and an Emmy for producing.
Over the years, Pitt has worked with some of the greatest directors in Hollywood. He broke out in a Ridley Scott movie, established an ongoing collaboration with David Fincher, and eventually joined Quentin Tarantino’s regular company of actors.
Andrew Dominik
While Andrew Dominik is currently working on an arthouse biopic of Marilyn Monroe, he’s primarily known for helming blood-soaked action-driven films. Pitt has teamed up with Dominik a couple of times to bring the director’s bleak, postmodern vision of cinematic violence to the screen.
Pitt played the titular gunslinger in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (Jesse James, not the coward Robert Ford) and a mob hitman in Killing Them Softly.
Tony Scott
With his work on films like Top Gun, Man on Fire, and Unstoppable, Tony Scott became one of the most celebrated action directors in Hollywood. But he didn’t always direct full-blown action thrillers.
In the early ‘90s, he turned one of Quentin Tarantino’s first screenplays into a movie. True Romance is a stylish romantic crime thriller about a pair of Bonnie and Clyde-style lovers on the run. Pitt plays the hysterical supporting role of Floyd, who spends all his scenes getting high on a couch. Scott later cast Pitt in a larger role opposite Robert Redford in his espionage thriller Spy Game.
Robert Zemeckis
Robert Zemeckis’ filmography has been pretty hit-and-miss over the years, but his hits are huge hits. From Forrest Gump to the Back to the Future trilogy to Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Zemeckis has helmed some of the most beloved movies ever made.
The director paired up Pitt with Marion Cotillard for the WWII-era romance Allied. Pitt plays a Canadian intelligence officer and Cotillard plays a French Resistance fighter. The two fall in love while posing as a married couple on a mission in Casablanca.
Terrence Malick
Terrence Malick became one of the pioneers of the New Hollywood movement with experimental gems like Badlands, a Bonnie and Clyde-style romantic crime thriller, and Days of Heaven, a historical epic with gorgeous cinematography. Arguably his most widely adored film is the harrowing war epic The Thin Red Line.
Pitt worked with Malick on The Tree of Life, a mainstream art film co-starring Sean Penn and Jessica Chastain. Set in the 1950s, the movie contrasts the mundane with the profound.
Terry Gilliam
Python-turned-visionary filmmaker Terry Gilliam is responsible for some of the most bizarre mainstream movies ever made. After co-directing the Monty Python classics, Gilliam broke off as a solo director with a distinctively weird vision, helming such gonzo hits as Time Bandits, Brazil, and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.
One of Gilliam’s most well-reviewed movies is 12 Monkeys, a dystopian reimagining of La Jetée that stars Pitt alongside Bruce Willis in a mind-boggling time-travel story.
George Miller
Thanks to the breathtaking practical stunts in the Mad Max franchise – specifically the car chases in The Road Warrior and Fury Road – George Miller is one of the world’s most acclaimed action filmmakers.
But he also dabbles in other genres, like animated kids’ movies. Miller spearheaded the Happy Feet franchise, and in the second movie, Pitt voiced Will the Krill opposite Matt Damon as Bill the Krill.
Steve McQueen
Not to be confused with the star of The Great Escape, Steve McQueen has made his name as a director of powerful, socially conscious dramas. He helmed Hunger, a historical epic about the 1981 Irish hunger strike; Shame, a portrait of a sex addict; and Widows, a pulpy crime thriller.
Pitt worked with McQueen on 12 Years a Slave, his biopic of Solomon Northup. In addition to producing, Pitt played a crucial supporting role toward the end of the movie.
David Fincher
When Pitt first became a movie star in the ‘90s, he quickly established a strong working relationship with director David Fincher. They collaborated on Se7en, a grisly serial killer thriller crossed with a “buddy cop” actioner, and Fight Club, one of the most iconic psychological thrillers ever made.
A few years later, Pitt and Fincher reteamed for a very different movie, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, a drama about a man who ages backwards.
Ridley Scott
Ridley Scott gave Pitt one of his first major roles. After bowling over sci-fi fans with Alien and Blade Runner, Scott helmed the feminist road movie Thelma & Louise, starring Geena Davis as Thelma and Susan Sarandon as Louise.
Pitt plays J.D., a hitchhiker that they pick up along the way. After Louise sleeps with J.D., she wakes up to find that he’s stolen her life savings and disappeared.
Quentin Tarantino
Pitt first delivered Tarantino’s dialogue in True Romance, but he wouldn’t get to work with Tarantino as a director until he played the role of badass Nazi-killing warmonger Lt. Aldo Raine in his darkly comedic World War II epic Inglourious Basterds.
The actor-director pairing reunited a decade later for Tarantino’s sun-drenched ‘60s-set opus Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. The role of unemployed stuntman Cliff Booth earned Pitt an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
The Coen Brothers
With an unmistakably quirky sensibility, the Coen brothers have tackled everything from the silliest comedies, like Raising Arizona, to the darkest dramas, like No Country for Old Men – as well as a bunch of movies somewhere in between, like A Serious Man – and won critical acclaim across the board.
The Coens cast Pitt in one of his goofiest, most hilarious roles as a personal trainer in over his head blackmailing an ex-CIA agent in the underrated farce Burn After Reading.