ANGELINA WEARING HER GOODWILL
AMBASSADOR HAT, VISITING DADAAB
REFUGE CAMP IN KENYA, LAST MONTH
bedrooms, a three-mile driveway with
20 fountains out front, stables and
indoor and outdoor pools.
Whether she and Brad are in London,
LA or Africa, the kids go to the local
school. “It’s fine,” she insists, matter-offactly,
when asked about her nomadic
lifestyle. The Jolie-Pitts’ life is a juggling
act but, as any mother knows, their
secret is planning. “We cope by
scheduling everything. When one
of us works, the other doesn’t.”
This broad world view is something her
own childhood lacked, she says. “I only
started to realise what amazing people
there are in the world when I grew up
myself and left California behind me.”
She’s left an awful lot more behind
her since she left California. From a
complicated beginning, where a low
self-esteem led her to cut her arms
with knives and experiment with drugs
– in the past she’s admitted to trying
“coke, heroin, ecstasy, LSD, everything”
– she’s gone on to build a family and
a hugely successful film career. And
it’s clear that her children have been
the catalyst for some very positive
changes in her emotional health.
GIRL, REWARDED:
CLAIMING HER BEST
SUPPORTING ACTRESS
OSCAR IN 2000
Actors Guild Award Award.
1998 – After a gruelling grue
filming process for Gia,
Angelina temporarily
temporar
gives up acting an and
enrols at New Yo York
University to stu study
film-making and
creative writing writing.
1999 – Girl,
Interrupted
rockets hher to
A-List status st
and wins
her a Best Be
Supporting
Support
Angelina claimed that acting was
a form of therapy and escapism for
her, but now she says: “My children
are taking over that role with every
day that passes.” And although she
can’t shake her lifelong hatred of being
hugged – “a handshake is all I can handle
from people who aren’t close to me. I
have no idea why it is” – a new sense of
peace seems to have arrived in her life.
FORGIVING THE PAST
She’s now building bridges with her
father, Jon Voight. “We’re in contact now
and writing letters,” she confirms. There
are signs Angelina’s anger towards him is
subsiding, as she manages to compliment
Voight, crediting him – as well as her
mother – with giving her a “strong social
conscience, as well as any acting genes
I may have. Both my parents were very
focused on helping other people, and
supported charities all their lives.”
Angelina’s own years of helping
others have changed her deeply and
personally in ways she couldn’t have
predicted. “What I saw in the refugee
camps in Sierra Leone made me cry a
lot,” she remembers of her 2001 trip
Actress Oscar, Golden
Globe and a Screen
Actors Guild Award.
2001 – Transforms from
lithe to ripped for the
first instalment of the
Lara Croft trilogy.
WITH BRAD PITT
IN MR & MRS
SMITH, 2005
there. “But then I realised that those
people weren’t crying. They were getting
on with life as best they could. They’re
survivors. They can teach us so much.”
Now, instead of pitying those in need,
she’s inspired by their courage to use her
name to do something helpful. “I have a
voice, and I use that to help them – and
I’m going to do that for the rest of my
days.” So far, she has been on field
missions to more than 20 countries
around the world.
Is this a hint she’s giving up acting?
“Maybe a film a year, or every other year,
and then I’ll phase things out – perhaps.
I’m in the happy position where I don’t
have to work if I don’t want to and at the
moment being a full-time mom is great.
2003 – Pens a memoir,
the snappily titled Notes
From My Travels: Visits
with Refugees In Africa,
Cambodia & Ecuador.
2005 – Gets her first
producer credits for
Trudell and Lovesick.
2005 – Films Mr & Mrs
Smith with Mr Bradley
Pitt; the rest you know.
2007 – Angelina makes
her directorial debut
with the documentary
A Place In Time, which
THE WHOLE PACKAGE:
THE JOLIE-PITTS IN
CANNES LAST MAY
captures life in 27
locations around the
globe during a single
week. Screened at
Tribeca Flm Festival
to widespread acclaim.
2008 – Plays the lead in
Changeling, channelling
the emotion she felt at
losing her mother into
the best performance of
her career. It won her an
Oscar nomination and a
Golden Globe.
2009 – Spends the
summer filming Salt,
ANGELINA JOLIE
I haven’t joined the Parent Teachers
Association yet – but there’s always time.”
Acting may be taking a back seat, but
Angelina is quick to quash rumours she’s
disposed of her old acting memorabilia,
including the Best Supporting Actress
Oscar she won for Girl, Interrupted.
“I gave [my trophies] to my mother,
because I don’t feel I need them around
to validate anything I do. There’s a story
the Oscar is lost, but that’s not so –
Mom put it away somewhere and, to
be honest, I haven’t had the strength
to go through all her stuff yet.”
For now, Angelina is moving forward,
serving on the Washington DC Council
on Foreign Relations, and trying to study
international law in her spare time – yet
another string to a rather impressive bow.
Only once during the interview does
she hint that the edgier Angelina we
used to know is still in there somewhere.
When asked what her motto is, she
quotes the Latin tattoo on her wrist,
which translates as, “That which
nourishes me also destroys me.” It’s
an unconventional mantra, but who
are we to argue? It’s stood her in
pretty good stead so far.
HER PERFORMANCE IN
CHANGELING, 2008, WON
JOLIE CRITICAL ACCLAIM
a spy thriller about a
rogue CIA operative
who tries to clear her
name after she is
accused of being a
Russian sleeper agent.
JOLIE WITH HER ADORED
LATE MOTHER, MARCHELINE
BERTRAND, IN 2001
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