Explainer | What is ‘face blindness’ and why does Brad Pitt say people hate him because of it?
- Prosopagnosia, or face blindness – when someone’s ability to recognise faces is impaired – affects more people than you think
- Warning signs include having trouble following movie plots because the actors all look the same to you, or difficulty recognising family members out of context
Imagine meeting someone at a party and really hitting it off. The next time you see them, they are completely unrecognisable.
Experts have labelled this condition “prosopagnosia”, otherwise known as face blindness. And it may affect more people than you think, including one Hollywood A-list actor: Brad Pitt.
Pitt, although not formally diagnosed, told GQ magazine in a cover story published on June 22 that he may have prosopagnosia, prohibiting him from recognising new faces or remembering people he meets in social settings – though he says “nobody believes” he has the condition.
In a 2013 cover story for Esquire, Pitt spoke out about how people have reacted to his lack of facial remembrance.
“So many people hate me because they think I’m disrespecting them,” he told the magazine. “So I swear to God, I took one year where I just said, this year, I’m just going to cop to it and say to people, ‘OK, where did we meet?’ But it just got worse. People were more offended.