Ella Purnell reflects on ‘insane’ Brad Pitt dating rumours: ‘I felt like I couldn’t leave the house’

Army of the Dead star Ella Purnell has reflected on the 2017 rumours that she was dating Brad Pitt.

In 2017, false tabloid reports emerged that Purnell, who was 21, was dating the Inglourious Basterds actor, who was 53.

Pitt was separated from Angelina Jolie at the time, after Jolie filed for divorce in September 2016, effectively ending their 12-year relationship and two years of marriage.

In a new interview with The Independent, Purnell opened up about the impact that the rumours and subsequent backlash had on her.

The Yellowjackets star called the experience “insane” and “crazy”.

Purnell explained that she had just landed her lead role on Sweetbitter, a TV adaptation of Stephanie Danler’s bestselling 2016 book of the same name, when it happened. Pitt served as an executive producer on the show.

“It was my first job in America so that was really scary and it was my first time going to New York,” she said, adding that she was living alone at the time.

Purnell went on to detail how she had come across one of the tabloid articles reporting that she and Pitt were supposedly dating. She said she initially found it “hilarious” given that she had never met the actor.

“I was like, ‘That’s so funny.’ I sent it to a few of my friends [as a joke],” she recalled. “And then I went to bed and woke up the next day, and it was f***ing everywhere. I had family members texting me to congratulate me.”

Purnell – who also starred in Tim Burton’s 2016 film Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children – continued: “I was terrified. I was really upset. I felt like I couldn’t leave the house and I felt embarrassed.”

“I read all the comments saying, ‘She’s a little slut. She’s a gold-digger. She wants to get famous. She’s a homewrecker.’ Not one person was saying, ‘Shame on Brad for dating practically a child,’” she recalled.

The 25-year-old added that the situation also “bothered” her because “this would never have happened if I was a man”.

“Essentially, what the tabloids were implying was that I’d only gotten the [Sweetbitter] job because I slept with the producer. This would never happen to the 21-year-old male lead of a show.”

Reflecting on the experience now, Purnell said she wished she had “nipped [the rumour] in the bud quickly to say, A) I’ve never met him. B) Use my platform to make a political stance”.

She added: “Instead I didn’t do anything and I let it ride itself out and then by the time LadBible was tweeting about it three to four days later, I was like, ‘Ok, I really need to say something.’ That was f***ed. That was crazy.”

In 2014’s Maleficent, Purnell had starred as the younger version of Jolie’s titular character.

Elsewhere in the interview, Purnell addressed the backlash she received for her role in Zack Snyder’s Netflix film Army of the Dead.

You can read the full interview here.