Last week, we talked about Brad Pitt’s Formula 1 film, loosely called Apex, which had been filming in the UK for several weeks before the SAG-AFTRA strike was called. It’s a complicated situation – the film is produced by Apple (an American company) with an American actor and SAG member in the lead, but most of the crew members seem to be British, and Lewis Hamilton is a producer on the film too. Once the strike was called, sources insisted that the production shut down and that Pitt is “definitely a very loyal member of the union” so he wouldn’t cross the metaphorical picket line in the UK. The thing is, he’s still in the UK. And Apex, or what it’s being called, still seems to be filming. It’s a bad news/bad news situation: either Pitt has crossed the picket lines and he’s still filming in the UK or Brad is just sitting around British pubs, getting sh-tfaced. Or both, because that’s what it sounds like.
The Mail on Sunday can reveal that the Fight Club actor has spent weeks here letting his hair down after filming his new movie about Formula 1 racing. He has been based at the exclusive Soho Farmhouse near the Oxfordshire village of Great Tew, staying in one of their A-list cabins previously used by his friend Tom Cruise and British actor Simon Pegg.
Sources close to Pitt, who turns 60 in December, also say that he fell in love with a traditional British pub in the market town of Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire, where they were filming scenes for his movie, rumoured to be called Apex, in which he plays a fictional F1 driver called Sonny Hayes.
He sipped pints at the idyllic Globe Inn, on the banks of the Grand Union canal, along with his co-stars and other staff working on the film. The traditional menu includes scampi and chips for £11.99 and sausage and mash for £11.89.
One source said: ‘Brad loves traditionally English things, including a really nice pub. It was closed for a week for filming but Brad just loved it there so would stay after filming and enjoy a drink.’
So much for his “sobriety.” To be fair, I never believed he was sober. I think he dried out for a year or two following his violent assault on his wife and children in 2016, but Pitt has looked actively drunk or drugged out for a while now. There have been many reports of Brad drinking while in the UK too – reportedly, he and Guy Ritchie were drinking heavily during and after the Wimbledon men’s final. And now he’s filming in British pubs and then sticking around to drink after filming?
PS… British actors’ union Equity cannot strike in support of SAG-AFTRA, but they can “demonstrate” and express solidarity with SAG-AFTRA. Equity’s leader Paul Fleming spoke, this weekend, about how he will not allow the UK film industry to become the backdoor for studios to undermine the writers and actors’ strikes. I am very curious to see if the British reports about Apex continuing to film through the strike will eventually be a bigger deal in the American trade papers.
My local pub, the Globe Inn by the Grand Union Canal at Leighton Buzzard, is closed all this week because they're shooting scenes for Brad Pitt's F1-themed film Apex. The Apple TV Plus crew have taken over the place. I'll have to go elsewhere for a pint.
— Geoff Cox (@Coxchat1) July 12, 2023
“We Are Not Going To Have The UK Used As A Backdoor To Undermine SAG,” Says British Equity Boss On Eve Of London Rally via @Deadline
— holly (@HollyRuston) July 23, 2023
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
- PITT Brad (USA), actor playing Sonny Hayes, driver of the fictional Apex APXGP team in the F1 movie by Apple Studios / Bruckheimer Films, portrait on the starting grid, grille de depart, during the 2023 Formula 1 Aramco British Grand Prix, 10th round of the 2023 Formula One World Championship from July 7 to 9, 2023 on the Silverstone Circuit, in Silverstone, United Kingdom -,Image: 788118350, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: 00123025, Model Release: no, Credit line: ANTONIN VINCENT / Panoramic / Avalon
- PITT Brad (USA), actor playing Sonny Hayes, driver of the fictional Apex APXGP team in the F1 movie by Apple Studios / Bruckheimer Films, portrait during the 2023 Formula 1 Aramco British Grand Prix, 10th round of the 2023 Formula One World Championship from July 7 to 9, 2023 on the Silverstone Circuit, in Silverstone, United Kingdom -,Image: 788130883, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: 00123025, Model Release: no, Credit line: Xavi Bonilla / Panoramic / Avalon
- starting grid, grille de depart, PITT Brad (USA), actor playing Sonny Hayes, driver of the fictional Apex APXGP team in the F1 movie by Apple Studios / Bruckheimer Films, portrait during the 2023 Formula 1 Aramco British Grand Prix, 10th round of the 2023 Formula One World Championship from July 7 to 9, 2023 on the Silverstone Circuit, in Silverstone, United Kingdom -,Image: 788152290, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: 00123025, Model Release: no, Credit line: ANTONIN VINCENT / Panoramic / Avalon
- Brad Pitt in the royal box during the mens’ finals on Day 14 at the 2023 Wimbledon Championships at the All England Club, London, UK, 16 July 2023,Image: 789502200, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: World Rights, Model Release: no, Credit line: Peter van den Berg / Avalon
- Brad Pitt in the royal box during the mens’ finals on Day 14 at the 2023 Wimbledon Championships at the All England Club, London, UK, 16 July 2023,Image: 789502204, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: World Rights, Model Release: no, Credit line: Peter van den Berg / Avalon
- Brad Pitt and Guy Richie in the royal box during the mens’ finals on Day 14 at the 2023 Wimbledon Championships at the All England Club, London, UK, 16 July 2023,Image: 789502235, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: World Rights, Model Release: no, Credit line: Peter van den Berg / Avalon
