So rather than repeat his star-making turn he chose projects obliquely; True Romance, Se7en, Twelve Monkeys, Fight Club, Babel, The Assassination Of Jesse James, Inglourious Basterds, The Tree Of Life… Movies that cannily teamed him with directors at the cutting edge of their art (Fincher, Malick, the Coens, Soderbergh, Tarantino), roles that screwed with audience perceptions and sharpened his skill set.

A conscious self-preservation plan – as he famously said of working with Redford on A River Runs Through It: “When you play with someone better than you, your game gets better.” Pitt is now a man at the top of his game.