In 1993 Juliette Lewis and Brad Pitt were Hollywood hopefuls in the film directed by Dominic Sena Kalifornia. The film revolves around two journalists and their teenage girlfriends who tour famous murder sites across America, unaware that one of them holds a horrible secret. With an equanimous violence in his heart, it unfolds with the same strange mixture of brutality and ease, like a razor blade encrusted in a bar of soap, as Terrence Malick. Wild lands had reached a few decades earlier.
While such an intensely savage reflection of the obscurity of American society might not seem like a perfect place for a romantic affair to blossom, two of its young protagonists were enjoying the balm of puppy love. Juliette Lewis dated Brad Pitt for four years, aged 16 to 20. “He’s not in my universe at all now,” she told the Guardian. “It sounds like a high school relationship because now he’s a very famous person.”
Adding: “I look at this person with whom I shared a little history. I hope he will find happiness because I really loved him. He’s a really good guy. Four years was an eternity back then. It was my longest relationship and we both lost our anonymity together. Huge changes in life have all happened, all related to this person.
Lewis then reflected, “We are strangers now. Isn’t that weird? I don’t know him as an adult, and he doesn’t know me. I know he’s been into interesting women, forever, and I know he’s a guy from Missouri who grew up in a very small world and it took him tremendous courage to leave. It’s a thought singer-songwriter Emma Tricca expressed with the beautiful line “Lost in New York”: “It’s so strange how people come into someone’s life, change the weather an once and for all, then you can’t remember their faces. “
However, the relationship at the time was not without a touch of controversy. When Lewis was 17 and the couple entered a full-fledged relationship, Brad Pitt was 27. Naturally, this age gap raised a few eyebrows at the time. Despite this, Lewis has always played down the disparity and the fanfare behind the whole relationship itself for that matter, remarking: “It amazed me that people are still fascinated that we dated for four years. I was in my high school years, and it was a wonderful, loving relationship with a fun, smart guy.
However, that hasn’t stopped Lewis from continually revisiting the subject of people at different points in their lives and the impact this has on romantic relationships throughout his creative work. The actress started a band after attending a Blondie concert with Hole drummer Patty Schemel and in 2004 grungy indie rockers Juliette and the Licks were born. By the time the band started, Lewis ventured to give all of his effort and decided to forgo the romance, remarking: “You know, I feel lonely – I’m not going to lie about it… I am. I’m kind of inscribed in my mind that I give myself wholeheartedly, thoroughly into my creative life and I don’t want to be distracted.
From that fervent creative mantle, Lewis often looked at the relationships she had cast aside in an unconsciously thoughtful way. Nothing more than the track ’20 Year Old Lover ‘by Juliette and the Licks. The song goes through the pitfalls of an age gap in a relationship, a subject Lewis is very familiar with, with lines like: me out.
Although seemingly a pithy rock song, having been under the same skin as the protagonist, the song is undoubtedly informed by its time with the aspiring star who has risen to the high perch of the Hollywood frontman. While the old couple still remain estranged, Lewis fondly looks back on their relationship and thanks Pitt for being a stable and loving presence as they quickly achieved a bewildering fame.
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