NEWSAlia Shawkat Clears Up Brad Pitt 'Romance' Rumors and That 'Really Bad Photo': 'He’s Just My Friend'
Alia Shawkat addressed the dating rumors about her and Brad Pitt.
Aug. 17 2026, Published 3:58 p.m. ET
Alia Shawkat opened up about her "romance" rumors with Brad Pitt.
On Watch What Happens Live on August 16, when host Andy Cohen addressed that buzz, saying he was "obsessed" with it, Shawkat said, "Oh God, of course you were. Me too. I was enthralled."
She then cleared it up, revealing, "This is my favorite question to get asked. Um, no — he’s just my friend. We became friends. Spike Jonze introduced us."
Alia Shawkat cleared the air on her dating rumors with Brad Pitt, saying he is 'just my friend.'
"It sounds all very chic and Hollywood," Shawkat continued. "But we met, and he’s really into art, and he’s very cool, and we became friends. And everyone thought we were dating, because if you stand next to him, everyone thinks you’re dating. Like, even his own mother."
Back in the fall of 2019, Shawkat and Pitt were seen spending time together at the Wilding Cran Gallery in Los Angeles, as well as at an opera performed at the Hollywood Bowl.
Alia Shawkat Also Addressed the 'Really Bad Photo'
Alia Shawkat addressed her 'really bad photo' with Brad Pitt on a 'Us Weekly' magazine cover.
After her clarification, Cohen then told Shawkat, "There could be worse dating rumors."
To this, she replied, "No, not bad. My grandmother saved Us Weekly — I was on the cover of it. There was a really bad photo, it was him and me being like ‘ooh!’ And they were like ‘Who’s the new girl?’"
"And my Arabic grandmother [was excited]," Shawkat continued. "I was like, ‘I’ve been working in film for 30 years, you’ve never seen anything, but you love this.’"
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Shawkat Called Brad Pitt 'The Coolest'
Alia Shawkat said Brad Pitt is 'the coolest.'
When she addressed that photo with Pitt, Cohen then added, "Again, it’s only cred for you, as far as I’m concerned."
Agreeing with him, Shawkat answered, "Totally. He's great, he's the coolest."
This was not the first time she addressed those dating rumors, though. In June 2020, she told Vulture that she "felt overwhelmed" by the public attention brought on by those rumors.
In 2022, she also told The New Yorker that Pitt "had no awareness of [the dating rumors] at all" because, as she said at the time, he did not personally engage with the press regarding his life.
A Source Close to Pitt Also Quashed Those Rumors
Sources close to Brad Pitt shut down any dating rumors between him and Alia Shawkat.
In November 2019, a source close to Pitt reportedly jumped to his defense to quash all those dating rumors with Shawkat.
The insider told People at the time that "absolutely nothing romantic is going on" between them.
That same month, a source also told the outlet that the Bullet Train actor "has a large group of artist friends that he hangs out with," and said that Pitt was not dating women who were a part of that group.
