Andra Day took home the best actress award at the 2021 BET Awards Sunday night (June 27), but she didn’t walk the red carpet with her rumored beau Brad Pitt.
Day, whose portrayal of the late jazz singer Billie Holiday in the film The United States vs. Billie Holiday earned her a Golden Globe award, Oscar nomination and now BET award, set the record straight with Entertainment Tonight about her affiliation with the fellow award-winning actor.
“Oh my gosh, chile, especially because we’ve never met,” the 36-year-old singer told ET’s Kevin Frazier, later acknowledging Pitt, 57, as a “great, super talented, wonderful” actor. “So I was like, ‘Oh, all right.’ My sister actually hit me up after, she was like, ‘You met Brad Pitt?’ I said, ‘I guess so. I guess we did.’”
Day added, “We’re not dating. We don’t even know each other. It is hilarious. It was thin air. Somebody was bored that day.”
The rumors started swirling when U.K.’s Mirror reported in May that Pitt and Day exchanged phone numbers at the 2021 Academy Awards, where he presented best supporting actress and where Day was nominated for best actress.
In addition to accepting the award for best actress at the 2021 BET Awards, Day also performed a medley of “Strange Fruit” and “Tigress & Tweed” — both from The United States vs. Billie Holiday — during the ceremony.