Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio on the Prospect of Reaching Their ‘Shelf Life’ in Hollywood

The actors worked together for the first time in Quentin Tarantino’s upcoming Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, in which 44-year-old DiCaprio stars as Rick Dalton, a fading actor struggling to keep his star alive in Tinseltown. At one point in the film, he tears up upon realizing he’s a “has-been” while confiding in his former stunt double, assistant and buddy, Cliff Booth, played by Pitt, 55.

“I think we’re all aware there’s a shelf life on this,” Pitt said when asked if he’s ever felt the momentum on his own career dying down during an interview with NBC’s Harry Smith, which aired on Monday’s Today. “But it’s really important to me the people I spend my time with and the artists that I respect.”

“So, I don’t know what went wrong on this one!” he jokingly added.

DiCaprio noted that some of the actors he admires the most have faced many ups and downs in their careers.

“You look at the trajectory and the careers of some of the greatest actors that I’ve admired and they ebb and flow,” he said. “There’s good times and there’s bad times and hopefully you could just be in the race as a long-distance runner is the only hope — and not burn out.”

Pitt recently spoke further about age in Hollywood during an interview with GQ Australia, in which he admitted to a fear of becoming a “dinosaur” in showbiz.

“I keep doing less and less,” he said about acting. “I really believe that overall it’s a younger man’s game — not that there aren’t substantial parts for older characters — I just feel, the game itself, it’ll move on naturally. There will be a natural selection to it all.”

Regardless of whether the pair ever feels too old to star on the big screen, there is something else they can do together at any age — record a Christmas album!

Pitt joked about the idea during the Today show interview after he and DiCaprio were asked if they would want to work together again.

“Of course,” Pitt said. “We talked about doing Jerry Lee Lewis, Dean Martin stories … I want to do a Christmas album.”