Brad Pitt Supports Obama and Gay Marriage — Says His Mom Is Wrong

Brad Pitt turned a London film screening into a political statement this week — and in doing so, publicly disagreed with his own mother.

At a Mayfair Hotel screening of Killing Them Softly, Pitt told reporters: "I am an Obama supporter and I'm backing his election campaign." He went further on the issue that had made his family name a tabloid talking point all summer: "Gay marriage is inevitable. The next generation, they get it. It is just a matter of time before it becomes a reality."

The comments were a direct counterpoint to his mother, Jane Pitt, who had written a letter to the Springfield News-Leader in July urging Christians to back Mitt Romney. In the letter, she described Obama as "a man who sat in Jeremiah Wright's church for years, did not hold a public ceremony to mark the National Day of Prayer, and is a liberal who supports the killing of unborn babies and same-sex marriage" — and argued Christians should not refuse to vote for "a family man with high morals, business experience, who is against abortion, and shares Christian conviction concerning homosexuality just because he is a Mormon."

It was an awkward family contrast, but hardly a new position for Pitt. He had long said he and Angelina Jolie would not marry until "it's legal for everyone else" — telling Parade in 2009, "I stand by that, although I took a lot of flak for saying it... I believe everyone should have the same rights."

Pitt was hardly alone among Hollywood's A-listers in backing Obama in 2012, but the mother-versus-son framing gave his endorsement a human-interest edge the campaign never had to buy. His prediction about marriage equality, for what it's worth, aged well: the Supreme Court made it the law of the land nationwide in 2015.