Brad Pitt Says He's Planning on Making Fewer Films: 'I Have Other Things I Want to Do'

Brad Pitt won an Oscar in 2014 for producing the hit movie 12 Years a Slave with his production company

Published on September 5, 2019 11:02AM EDT

Brad Pitt is looking ahead to a life less focused on acting.

The longtime actor, who got his first taste of superstardom after 1991’s Thelma & Louise, made an acclaimed return to the big screen in this summer’s Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood. But his back-to-back major movies, with Ad Astra hitting theaters Sept. 20, don’t mean he’s looking to make more at this stage in his career. It’s actually the opposite.

“It’ll be fewer and farther in between for me, just because I have other things I want to do now,” Pitt, 55, said in a new profile for the New York Times, published Wednesday. “When you feel like you’ve finally got your arms around something, then it’s time to go get your arms around something else.”

Pitt previously spoke to PEOPLE at the Los Angeles premiere of Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood, where he weighed in on whether he had ever considered retiring given director Quentin Tarantino’s vocal stance on it. The Oscar-winning writer and director has often said he’s retiring after 10 films, meaning he has one more left after Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood.

“No, I don’t know. I don’t know. I enjoy doing other things,” Pitt said of whether he’s thought about leaving his acting career behind. “I think that one day I’ll just wake up and organically it’ll be done. Maybe I won’t wake up and that’s why it’ll be done.”

Pitt also opened up to GQ Australia earlier this summer about his changing interest in the movie industry as he gets older. Pitt won an Oscar in 2014 for producing the hit movie 12 Years a Slave with his production company.

“I’m behind the camera on the producing side and I enjoy that a lot,” Pitt said of his recent projects with production company Plan B. “But I keep doing less and less. I really believe that overall it’s a younger man’s game – not that there aren’t substantial parts for older characters – I just feel, the game itself, it’ll move on naturally. There will be a natural selection to it all.”

He continued to the outlet, “But I’m curious to see what the future of [film] is, what shape it takes. I really appreciate the streaming services because we’re seeing more and more quality projects being made. We’re seeing more writers and directors and actors getting a shot. It just tells you how many talented people are out there.”

“I like to think there’s room for both,” he said. “But I could be a dinosaur and not even know it, man. And the comet could be on the way.”