Around five years ago, speculation began doing the rounds that there was some kind of romance going on between the pair with more than two decades between them in age.
Shawkat is, of course, best known for playing Maeby Fünke in Arrested Development as well as having roles in the likes of other series and films Search Party, The Final Girls and Blink Twice.
Now 35, she had formed a friendship with Pitt back in 2019, leading to the misinterpretation they were dating.
Alia Shawkat is best known for playing Maeby Fünke in Arrested Development (Victor Boyko/Getty Images)
Speaking to The New Yorker in 2022, Shawkat said it was her who the Fight Club actor ended up hearing it from.
“I was like, ‘You know everyone thinks we’re dating? And there’s this whole thing, and I’m being followed’,” she recalled.
“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 added that Pitt had no idea about any of it ‘because he doesn’t read that s**t’.
Being heavily followed by paparazzi when the rumours were doing the rounds, the story ended up getting to her family. And it turns out her gran was just pretty made up to see her in a magazine.
Shawkat previously said: “The other day I was at my grandmother’s house, my father’s mother. She’s been in this country for over thirty 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.
She said Brad Pitt had ‘no awareness’ of the dating rumours (Gilbert Flores/Variety via Getty Images)
“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’.”
The star went on to criticise how it was rumours around her possible romance making headlines rather than the work she does.
“There’s something ironic about it. It has nothing to do with Brad as a person – he’s a great f***ing guy,” she said. “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.”
