Brad Pitt Expertly Dodges That Awkward Oscar Question

He is one of the biggest movie stars on the planet — yet that Oscar continues to elude him.

But Brad Pitt's not bothered — or at least was very convincingly pretending not to be when asked about it at the Venice Film Festival on Thursday.

"Every year, I see amazing talent getting acknowledged and amazing talent not getting acknowledged," he told reporters, per the Daily Beast. "And my feeling is, when your number comes up, it's great fun, and when someone else's number comes up it's usually a friend, so it's great fun still.

He added smiling: "How was that for a dodge?"

Pitt has been nominated as an actor three times for Academy Awards: in 1996 for his supporting turn as a fanatical mental patient in "12 Monkeys"; in 2009 for his lead role as the reverse-aging protagonist in "The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button"; and again in 2012 for his lead portrayal of Oakland Athletics manager Billy Beane in "Moneyball".

Pitt does have a statuette — he picked one up as producer of "12 Years A Slave" when it won Best Picture in 2014. He's been nominated twice more with his producer hat on, for "Moneyball" and in 2016 for "The Big Short."

Oscar buzz currently surround his supporting role in Quentin Tarantino's "Once Upon A Time In Hollywood" where he played stuntman Cliff Booth opposite Leonardo DiCaprio — someone who knows all too well about Oscar snubs, having picked up six nominations before finally landing the seventh in 2016 for "The Revenant."

Pitt is also generating Oscar buzz around his role as an astronaut in "Ad Astra", which opens at the Venice Film Festival. His production company Plan B also produced, so he would potentially have two cracks at a little golden statue through the James Gray directed film.

"This has been the most challenging film I've ever worked on because this story James devised is so delicate, and every clip of a frame too early or music or voiceover could tip the thing over and be too much, or be too obvious," he told the press conference.

"It was a constant effort just to try to maintain this balance, and try to keep this story unfolding in a very subtle, delicate way."

Pitt also addressed the topic of toxic masculinity, which he said was one of the main themes of the sci-fi adventure film.

"In retrospect, I look back on our early conversations — James and I — and what we were really digging at, without labeling it so much, was this definition of masculinity," he said.

"Having grown up in an era where we were taught to be strong, not show weakness, don't be disrespected, and so on and so forth, there's certain value in that as far as entering into the world and holding your own, but there's also a barrier that's created with this kind of embracing of the self, because you're denying, to a sense, those pains or the things [that make] you feel shame, whether real or imagined, the regrets in one's life."

He continued: "Looking back, we were asking the question: Does actually being more open provide you with a better relationship with your loved ones, with your parents, with your kids, and with yourself?"

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