"I just saw it as a disservice to myself," Pitt said of his alcohol abuse.
Brad Pitt says he cries more now after he "hadn't cried in, like, 20 years."
During a sit-down with Anthony Hopkins for Interview magazine, the 55-year-old actor admitted he wasn't one to shed a tear easily, but he is finding life a little more emotional as he grows older.
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View Story"I am quite famously a not-crier. Is that a term? Now I find myself, at this latter stage, much more moved -- moved by my kids, moved by friends, moved by the news. Just moved. I think it's a good sign. I don't know where it's going, but I think it's a good sign."
Hopkins agreed that age does help tear down personal walls.
"The thing about me is, I cry at the drop of a hat, because everything moves me, because I'm getting old," he explained. "Inside, we get the wallpaper stripped off all of our defenses, bit by bit, clawed away. You'll find, as you get older, that you just want to weep."
"Really?" Pitt asked, who while playing interviewer was revealing just as much if not more about himself.
"Yes. It's not even about grief. It's about the glory of life," The Oscar-winner explained.
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View StoryThe two legendary actors also opened up about their struggles with alcohol, with Pitt recalling Hopkins telling him he had "dumped it" while they were filming 1998's "Meet Joe Black."
"I look at it, and I think, 'What a great blessing that was, because it was painful,'" Hopkins said. "I did some bad things. But it was all for a reason, in a way. And it's strange to look back and think, 'God, I did all those things?' But it's like there's an inner voice that says, 'It's over. Done. Move on.'"
"Well, I just saw it as a disservice to myself, as an escape," Pitt confessed.
Pitt also admitted he's still "wrestling" with self-blame for his past mistakes.
"I'm realizing, as a real act of forgiveness for myself for all the choices that I've made that I'm not proud of, that I value those missteps," he told Hopkins, "because they led to some wisdom, which led to something else. You can't have one without the other. I see it as something I'm just now getting my arms around at this time in my life. But I certainly don't feel like I can take credit for any of it."