Once upon a time in Hollywood, Brad Pitt and Alia Shawkat sparked romance rumors.
While their outings turned out to be nothing more than friendly, the 32-year-old actress still hasn't forgotten about the 2019-2020 buzz over their relationship status.
Luckily, it seems like the frenzy has since calmed down. When asked in an interview with The New Yorker if people still follow her around in hopes of getting close to Pitt, Shawkat replied, "Thank God, no. It came in hot and left as fast as it came in. It happened during covid, and I was alone with it. It was so weird. Now it's like a weird dream, where I'm, like, Did that happen?"
But how did Pitt feel about all the attention? According to Shawkat, the 58-year-old Oscar winner "had no awareness of it at all."
"Which is so funny," she continued. "Because he doesn't read that s--t. I was, like, 'You know everyone thinks we're dating? And there's this whole thing, and I'm being followed.' And he was, like, 'I'm sorry. It happens. If you hang out with me, it happens.' He had no awareness of it at all."
Shawkat, however, couldn't escape the gossip. "The other day I was at my grandmother's house, my father's mother," the Search Party star told the outlet. "She's been in this country for over 30 years and still barely speaks English. An Iraqi Muslim woman. She's sitting there, watching her Turkish soap opera. And next to her is this old gossip magazine with Brad's face, and my face in a small circle. And it says 'Brad's New Girl!' And then on the inside it's old Instagram photos of me and friends at dinner. It was, like, 'ALL ABOUT ALIA.' This whole made-up story about how we were healing each other by spending time together. All this crazy s--t."
"I looked at my grandmother, like, 'Why do you have this?'" Shawkat recalled. "She's, like, 'It's you and this movie star! And it's your face.' I was embarrassed by it. I told her she had to throw it away. And she laughed."
As Shawkat recalled to Vulture in 2020, she and Pitt met at a movie premiere years ago and became friends. But after they were spotted hanging out in 2019, including at the Wilding Cran Gallery in Los Angeles, dating speculation spread.
"At the time, it was not fun at all," the Arrested Development alum told The New Yorker about all the tabloid reports. "I'm not an actor who has ever dealt with the paparazzi. They don't know who the f--k I am."
She continued, "There's something ironic about it. It has nothing to do with Brad as a person—he's a great f--king guy. But of course the idea of me being romantically involved with an older white guy is what gets me the most attention. Not a 20-year career. That's what gets me. And it's ironic and gross and stupid."
"But yeah, again, it was super brief. And I was fine," she noted. "I was shaken up by it, because I have a studio in Highland Park where I go every day. And I was, like, There are these photos of me carrying way too much s--t to get inside. There are all these embarrassing photos, they had followed me there. Then they just disappeared, and now they don't give a s--t."
This isn't the first time Shawkat has spoken about the rumors. During her interview with Vulture, she made it clear that, "We're not dating. We're just friends."
As for Pitt, he knows there will always be a public interest in his private life. When asked if he ever reads anything about himself during a 2019 interview with The New York Times, he replied, "I don't go out of my way to avoid it; I just don't seek it out. I don't know how many women they've said I've been dating the last two or three years, and none of it's true."