Alia Shawkat reveals grandma’s reaction to Brad Pitt dating rumors

Alia Shawkat once again set the record straight on her long-running “relationship” with Brad Pitt, as she has for years, that the two have only ever been friends.

On August 16, during her interview on Watch What Happens Live with host Andy Cohen alongside Kristen Stewart, the host asked her how the rumors first started. She answered, “This is my favourite question to get asked”.

“Um no, he’s just my friend. We became friends. Spike Jonze introduced us. It sounds all very chic and Hollywood. 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.”

The speculation dates back to 2019, when the two were spotted together at Wilding Cran Gallery in Los Angeles and later at the Hollywood Bowl. Shawkat recalled the media frenzy fondly this time around, joking about her grandmother’s reaction to seeing her on a magazine cover.

“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. I was like, ‘I’ve been working in film for 30 years, you’ve never seen anything, but you love this.'”

Cohen, who admitted he’d been “obsessed” with the rumours for years, told Shawkat the association was good for her cred; she agreed, calling Pitt “the coolest.”

Pitt has been in a relationship with jewelry designer Ines de Ramon since 2022, and the two made their red-carpet debut together at the 2024 Venice Film Festival. Shawkat has not publicly confirmed a relationship of her own.