I
have at last met one of the most, if not THE most desirable
woman in
Hollywood
! Angelina Jolie is someone
every woman wishes to be and every man and woman (according to
surveys) wants to be with.
Not to mention, shacking up with one of
Hollywood
’s hottest leading men, has also earned her the label of ‘most
envied!’ She continually tops ‘the sexiest’ list with her
natural beauty and is blessed with the most sought after features,
mainly her signature full lips. Above
all, Jolie’s inner beauty is as apparent as her outer beauty,
which is an affirmation of just how remarkable she truly is. It
would be inhuman not to love her!
In
the upcoming drama THE
GOOD SHEPHERD,
the talented, award-winning Jolie takes on her latest challenge in
portraying the lonely and isolated wife Clover, married to an
unaffectionate, secretive CIA agent played by Matt Damon.
Jolie’s heartbreaking performance of a victimized wife of a
dishonest husband is so credible, it commands attention and empathy.
I
had the distinct pleasure of meeting Brad Pitt’s gorgeous baby
mama last week when she sat down to talk about her various
humanitarian efforts, her almost nonexistent private life and the
challenges of portraying a vulnerable woman in the upcoming
star-studded film, THE GOOD SHEPHERD.
Angelina
Jolie
Can
you talk about how being a mom in real life can be related to this
film?
That
was the one thing that kept me grounded for her and connected to
her. There was so much about her I didn’t identify with, but her
love and commitment to her son and certainly having lost her own
family to this world of CIA and now her husband and the fear that
her son would get involved in this kind of dangerous silent world
and that becoming a reality and how that would feel; so yeah, that
would seem in particular, fighting for him was very personal.
Can
you imagine sitting back and not saying anything if that were your
own child?
No.
So much of that film was a study in that kind of restraint because I
live in a times, we all do, as a woman I can say, “I’m leaving,
I’m getting a divorce, you tell me what’s going on”, or even
speaking at a man that’s much harsher without it being the ugliest
thing in the world and she had to maintain a certain type of
composure, quiet decency, just settle into that life, and it was
that time and the CIA, the idea of getting out was impossible as a
woman, so it was very hard because everything instantly in me was…
How
hard was it to play a rejected, unloved wife?
Well,
I do have two divorces. (Laughs) But I’m still good friends with
them, so it’s ok. I guess it was so much … I think it’s easier
to play that kind of stuff when you do have a balanced home; because
I think if I did have alcoholism in my personal life, or my mother,
or somebody close to me, if I had that experience, it might have
been much more uncomfortable to get in there; and that kind of
relationship with a man, I’ve never had that in my life because
I’ve always married artists so they are always very talkative.
It’s an expressive bunch. It was bizarre, but I think that was
kind part of the character, which is interesting because she did
feel lost and she did feel trapped and confused and so did I as
well.
You
usually play various strong roles, so what was it about this
character that was attractive to you?
I
do see her in the end as being as strong as a woman could be at that
time, but I did like that there were already things about her that
were broken and often I don’t get to play that part and that’s
why it took a while for Bob (De Niro), for us to decide that I
should play that part because she is much more subservient, and more
vulnerable and she is very broken; and as an actress, it’s a great
challenge. As a woman, as much as I’m certain in my life, I could
feel strong about this. There are pieces that are broken.
Did
you have to prove to Bob (De Niro) that you could play that person?
I
think he needed to understand that I really knew her and my
intentions for I would play her were accurate. He’s very specific
and to every detail of this film, he’s aware of it. He cares about
it, and so I think I’m a very modern woman. Even in the beginning
she’s very light and silly and in a way that I don’t usually
portray either, so a lot about her was not something that he could
obviously see that I was capable of doing. So I think he had to know
that I understood her and so we talked about it a lot to make sure
he did.
He
did (Robert De Niro) say you connected with her.
Yeah.
I think that kind of feeling alone I didn’t necessarily feel that
in a marriage per se, but in my life I’ve often felt… she’s
surrounded by a lot of people that there are a lot of secrets, a lot
of quiet, a lot of people just accepting, and as much as she’s
broken and she’s that person, she’s also the only person that is
desperate to scream out and to try to get some reaction, something
honest, and I found that in my life a lot. I tend to want to be that
person that I can’t tolerate and it would break me. I would start
drinking something terrible. If I was in a situation where I was
surrounded by lies or quiet or secrets, it’s just not a real life.
Do
you think that self-deception is necessary in a relationship of the
character or in general?
No,
I think that quite the opposite is the only thing that works. I
don’t want to spend my life having to pretend to be someone else;
and I don’t want the person next to me to have to pretend ever
because we have a long life ahead of us. You want to just be whoever
you are in every moment and that’s the only way you’ll ever be
truly happy anyway.
My
favorite Angelina Jolie rumor that’s not true is that Frank Miller
wants you to be in Sin City 2. Have you been in talks with him about
it?
We
talked about it and I read the comic. I don’t think the film is
being made at this moment. When it’s actually going to be made I’m
sure we’ll talk about it. It was a funny thing, because the idea
came to me when I was pregnant, and so it was this idea… I’ve been
Clover (in ‘The Good Shepherd’), depressed and quiet, and then I was
feeling very maternal, pregnant. It was this idea of this sexy,
violent and loud (character), and I thought maybe after I’m pregnant
it would be nice to do. (Laughs) But it didn’t come at that time
and we’re still talking about it.
Do
you know when it might shoot?
I
don’t know when it might go and if I have time when it does, but I
think they are very interesting projects and I like the comics and I
love him as a director so it’s possibility.
You’ve
done a lot of humanitarian work through developing countries where
the CIA has been there to operate behind the scenes. Have you
experienced any direct or indirect activity in terms of political
structure that you worked to include your humanitarian work?
That’s
such a huge question. I’ve never been clearly aware of something
specific but I think certainly I’ve witnessed our foreign policy
and I’ve witnessed the change in the perception of America’s
foreign policy in the last few years. Every trip I take the field
has been different because of the changes we have made and I’m
sure the CIA has had a hand in that.
What
are the changes?
To
be completely honest, I think about five years ago when I started
traveling and I would say I was American, everybody was very, very
excited. Thought it was the greatest thing in the world, and now you
feel cautious. You feel that people are a bit not so joyful about
that. They’re questioning my country and people would say things
like, “It’s extraordinary that you’re here. You’re
American” and that’s not true of the American people. American
people are very caring, generous people. That’s been proven with
all the individual household has done abroad and the charity they do
and who we are as a people, but it’s not what our government has
represented in the last few years. It’s been difficult to go
places abroad and just see… I think we know exactly what I’m
saying.
It’s
been said that Matt actually got to spend time with CIA families.
Did you do any of the same to see how these families function?
I
didn’t because most of the people that they could all talk to were
really the men and the CIA and the women like Clover were kind of
absent or had been quieted or had moved to Arizona. One of them did
actually. That’s actually a true story. Somebody’s living there
now. She’s based on a few people. It was almost impossible to talk
to the women and I think in reality the women knew so little. There
would be very little to talk about. My choice was really to talk to
nobody, really understand nothing, and be trapped in this world
where sometimes De Niro’s character would come in and I hadn’t
focused on exactly who he was in the script and exactly what he did
and I didn’t do my research on it. I wasn’t really sure who he
was and I just stayed in the dark.
Can
you an update on the Ayn Rand project? What’s your interest in it?
I
think it’s a wonderful book. I’m a fan of her writing. I think
it’s an amazing project. It’s a controversial and complicated
project. I think it needs to be done right. There’s been a lot of
talk as to how that can be. One of the important reasons for making
it is that there are a lot of great people involved. It’s being
written now, so we’ll see, as the script comes out, how close we
are to possibly making it. Everybody involved, and the producers,
all sat down at the table and we all agreed that if we couldn’t do
it right and we couldn’t do it justice; if along the way, any one
piece didn’t come together, the right director, the right script,
we would all just fold it and not do it. So, that’s where we are
at now. We’re taking it step by step and we’re going to make
damned sure that it’s done right.
What
do you think are the important reasons for doing it?
I
don’t know if we should get into that now. It’s too complicated
to get into because the discussion of that project, her
misconceptions about her, different interpretations about her, that
script, it is a huge subject; so I would be tentative to speak
lightly about it.
With
your social activism taking up so much of your life, has it changed
what kinds of roles you want to do? Do you see parts from a
political perspective first and what type of statement you’ll make
about women in the world or can you just sort of have fun?
I
think it’s important to just have fun and not take everything so,
so seriously because I think there’s a big room for entertainment
in this world. That’s most of the movies I go to with my kids.
It’s part of what we do. I’m not a politician. I am just an
actor and I’m supposed to just entertain and tell stories, so I
remember that. Certainly when a film project comes along like this
one or “A Mighty Heart”, the Mariane Pearl story, there are the
ones that a priority in my life and the ones I enjoy more in a
different way and a very different experience. The thing right now
that makes the big choice is how long is it shooting because I
don’t think I have shot more than seven weeks on a movie in two
years. I need to make sure I have time with my kids.
Will
you work with Brad (Pitt) again?
Who’s
going to watch the children? (Laughs)
Besides
your work in Cambodia, are there things you want to see happen, on
the film side or anything else?
I
will continue to work with refugees and I will never shift focus
from them because I think it’s important and it is where my heart
lies. Cambodia – we just went back there and it’s changed so much
in recent years. It’s
now Millennium Village that Brad and I are supporting. It is also
148,000 acres of protected forest and it’s also many, many
villages and it’s a huge, huge project, which is not what I had
intended, but it’s wonderful and I’m learning a lot.
We’re
involved in many things and I with Brad’s work in New
Orleans…we’re trying to make sure that we stay focus. Our
temptation is that we hear something is going on somewhere and we
want to get involved. We’re working together on AIDS work and
passing some legislation for them on their behalf because there’s
nobody actually fighting for them and we put together a group of
people who do exactly that. For Zahara, we want to do something in
Ethiopia. We’ve been supporting an orphanage there but I think we
can figure out something specific just so Maddox can take over his
project and we want her to take over hers, so we want to figure out
what that is.
Does
that prompt cinematic things as a result?
Sometimes
it does. I think to be honest I am interested in the art coming out
of different countries and I’m starting to learn about different
directors. Cambodia is having a big art splurge now and they are
having new posters for their movies, which they never had until a
few years ago. I’m fascinated by supporting local artists which
I’m sure will be little projects that will not make it here
anytime soon, but we’ll start to get to know their stories. When
we were in India, we talked to people in Pakistan and about their
favorite plays, their favorite pieces of literature, etc.
How
did it feel to see yourself aged through the film and if you thought
about aging gracefully in real life?
Well,
my mom is aging gracefully and if I’m anything like my mother –
she’s lovely. I love age on a face. In this business there’s not
a lot of leverage for the way people have an opinion about how
people should look, but I personally love it and I love to age in
movies. I love to see my face old in different ways. There’s
something very comforting about feeling yourself as an older woman.
When you get to that point, you would have earned so many different
things and be roaded in so many ways that there seems so sort of
comfort to it.
But
Clover was a little different because hopefully I will not break
apart as she did because we had these big yellow contacts and yellow
teeth and you may have not noticed it, but I was affected by it. I
had the alcohol age, and if you look closely at her, there were some
broken capillaries and a lot of yellow. Hopefully I won’t have to
look in a mirror and look like this. This is what I will look like
if I start drinking. (Laughs)
You
are a very engaging, connecting kind of person. You’re living in a
world where you’re not sure who you can trust where you are being
spied on as a celebrity. How does it affect you where everything you
do, your kids, or Brad, makes news? How does that change the way you
live your life?
I
made a point to not let it change the way I live my life. I
carefully plan my holidays or where we go or where we stay or things
like that to try to ensure some quality of life that’s private and
nice for the kids. We simply don’t let it affect us. The only time
it is hard is when the kids want to go somewhere. I’ve had so many
offers to take my children to Disneyland and places that I can’t
take them and they don’t understand how upsetting that is. Taking
my kids trick or treating or things they assume I can’t do, so we
plan to find ways to do all of those things. There are worse
problems, so we’re okay.
Did
you have a costume for Halloween?
I
had a mix of odd masks and things. This year we were in India and we
had this odd celebration in the hotel. We had candy and costumes
sent up from the states. Z (Zahara) had a really big afro and Mad
(Maddox) had dreadlocks. We were trying to explain what that was and
we had fun playing dress-up.
How
do you juggle everything?
I
plan a lot, obsessively. I’m very lucky. I love the different
elements of my life. I love working abroad and I love being with my
kids and I love being with Brad. This is the life I chose to have
and I would to love to add many more children and many more
obstacles.