In person, it’s obvious why Angelina Jolie is an A-list celebrity. Her beauty is like a mesmerizing magnet, keeping all eyes fixated on her, yet it’s clear that she is somewhat of an introvert. Her gestures and her walk are so graceful that they take a person off-guard, especially given the fact that her complex public persona is known for dueling personalities: she’s a biker chick, humanitarian activist, and mother all rolled into one. It’s because of her seemingly opposing interests and dedications that few really have a grasp of who the real Angelina is. What better way to find out than through her own – very famously sexy – lips…
Urbanette Magazine: You’re one of the most famous women on the planet. How do you feel about being in the public eye all the time?
Angelina Jolie: I like to hide behind the characters I play. Despite the public’s perception, I am a very private person who has a hard time with the fame thing. I would like to be open with the public. I don’t want to keep secrets or be careful when I talk. I don’t want to have to plan things. I want to be outspoken! I want to say my opinions and I hope they’re taken in the right way. I don’t want to stop being free …and I won’t…
Urbanette: I think that people appreciate your opinions and the fact that you do so much activism. Is it hard to balance your activism, and your UN ambassador role, with your film career?
Angelina: My role as goodwill ambassador has made my work as a film star relatively dull. I love to travel and I find deep purpose in my activism. It’s rare for me to find a project that interests me enough to go back to work. It would need to have real meaning, like First They Killed My Father does. I’m simply not excited about going to a film set anymore.
Urbanette: You seem so confident as a mother and as a woman. Are you ever insecure?
Angelina: Oh, God, I struggle with low self-esteem all the time! I think everyone does. I have so much wrong with me. I’m odd looking. Sometimes I think I look like a funny muppet.
Urbanette: I’m pretty sure that nobody in the world thinks you look like a muppet! But I can only imagine the pressure you’re under to look a certain way. What helps you forget all that? What makes you feel special?
Angelina: I’m going to come home and my babies are going to be in little pajamas and come running at me and hug me. Then I’ll feel special.
Urbanette: That’s sweet! Is that what you’d consider the ultimate love and happiness?
Angelina: I think that we come to love not by finding the perfect person, but by learning to see an imperfect person perfectly. Raise kids. Have a good life. Be a good friend. And try to be completely who you are. And figure out what you personally love. And go after it with everything you’ve got no matter how much it takes.
Urbanette: I hope you don’t mind me asking, but what caused problems in your previous marriage?
Angelina: It was a real deep connection, a deep marriage, so it’s not that simple to say this or that one thing caused the problems. But we’re focusing on the health of our family. I’m focused on my children.
Urbanette: Speaking of children, you have so many of them! Did you always want to be a mother?
Angelina: When I was younger I thought ‘Oh God, I couldn’t be someone’s mother’. I didn’t know if I’d ever be a mother, or be a good mother. We all thought that! [laughing] I just know that my wilder days are going to come back at me later. Someday, my kids are going to ask ‘What were you doing?’!
Urbanette: So have you finally, officially shed your ‘bad girl’ image?
Angelina: Because I seem like a bad girl, people always automatically think that I am 100% bad girl. Or that I carry a dark secret with me or that I’m obsessed with death. The truth is that I am probably the least morbid person one can meet. If I think more about death than some other people, it is probably because I love life more than they do!
Urbanette: How do you escape all this?
Angelina: If you don’t get out of the box you’ve been raised in, you won’t understand how much bigger the world is. You might never find out that you are useful for all the right reasons – and not all those stupid things that people tell you you’re useful for.
Urbanette: You’ve gone through some hard times in your life. How do you get through it?
Angelina: I adjust my perspective. I just think ‘My God, that woman just crossed a border with five children and no food’. So we all just need to get on. So we move on.
Loved this interview. I think she’s a very inspiratioal and good person. She does a lot of great humanitarian work,bringing situations to light that most people aren’t aware of. And she seems to have grown a lot as a person since her early career. But I still just don’t like her acting or directing. Her acting comes across as stiff and superficial. Kind of like she is a actor playing a actor that’s playing a part. She seems disconnected from her roles.
Amazing interview! Very inspiring and heartwarming. She is a unique soul, a caring, empathetic human being, doing her part to make the planet a better place.
I don’t know when this happened, but somewhere along the line, Angelina Jolie suddenly became this very serious, significant person with depth and gravitas, who has interesting things to say and do about the world.
Maybe she was always like this, but I remember the late 1990s and early 2000s, when she’d just won her first Oscar, and she was constantly portrayed as a frivolous, out-of-control wild child. Then she started her humanitarian work, where she’s actually done real work as opposed to just lending her name as many celebrities do. She started making better films. She started writing and directing. She started speaking out on women’s issues and humanitarian issues. It’s quite a transformation.
She grew up. She seems like a genuine person. Of course one can always be cynical and say that it is her public persona. She is quite a contrast to her father who is a real piece of work lol
I give recognition to the her for her philanthropy work above her career. Of course, if it were not for her career, her philanthropy work most likely wouldn’t exist. Those who gain stardom and riches from the world’s people and put back into that world in a positive way says much more about them. And then there are people like Enya who sucks the world dry and disappears into a castle…
Where the hell did that come from? How does she manage to “suck the world dry”? How do you know she doesn’t privately give to charity without hollering about it? What a fatuous comment.
Thanks for the brilliant interview. Really made my day. ? Reading some comments below, i could not figure out why people criticize her. She is not begging for attention like other celebrities who just want to be in limelight for their makeup, dresses and parties. I like her acting and she is doing great job as a mother and human being.
I respect her. But I still can’t shake the feeling that she may be a sociopath, carefully curating a public persona, and that she will one day drop her children and quickly as she collected them. I think all of this as she reminds me so much of someone I know who takes on pets who are then abandoned, frequently changes jobs, cars , homes and has trouble maintaining relationships. The woman has a son who she eventually got bored of and moved on from. The woman is also manipulative and cruel. I don’t know Jolie from Adam but I get the same chill when I read about her that I get when I see this woman. It is probably all in my head!
Calling adopting children as ‘collecting’ shows what a warped mind and heart and soul you have. She has only adopted 3 children, and that was 6 years ago. Angelina has never abandoned any one. In fact, her being a tireless worker for the UN for 13, yes, thirteen, years, shows she has commitment and staying power. I think your own insecurities and jealousies are driving your feelings and projections.
I really upset you – sorry! I’m not insecure or jealous at all. In fact I very much look up to and admire strong, powerful women, (although admittedly actresses don’t tend to make that list) – Helen Clark, Hillary Clinton, Mary Wollstonecraft. As I said – it is probably just all in my head. It was just one of those instances where someone reminds you hugely of someone else and you can’t help but ascribe similar traits as a result. It felt to me like she was collecting children because of the way she went about it – making sure they were from or born in different countries and tattooing the coordinates of those places on herself. It did give a sense of children as collectibles. Not to say that was her intent. Like I say – I don’t know her from Adam! Also, I have read (and to be fair you can’t believe all you read) that she was described as sociopathic at high school. There is also something from a long time ago about her describing herself being cruel to animals as a child. Anyway it doesn’t really matter. Point is, in life there are people that make your alarm bells go off. For whatever reason that happens to me when I read about her. Same with Jeremy Renner – there is something about him that sets of warning bells although I don’t really know why! It is quite bonkers of me, really, but there it is I’m an intuitive sort, always have been, which is weird because I work with data and evidence based conclusions are what I am all about! But when it comes to people I pick up things. Most of the tiime I try to ignore those feelings. This is one rare time where I have acknowledged them!
Angelina and Brad have evidently ‘heaped coals’ of fire on my head, by being such wonderful parents. Like most parents, they probably only see their failings, but it’s a nice thought that one day their love will be shown to them in its glory, for ‘paying forward’ the love that God has evidently put in their hearts.
Angelina! I respect her enormously. She is very charming and a fierce individualist. She is a powerful Woman. Very graceful, intelligent, sophisticated, talented. She has a very endearing and attractive “grunge” (for want of a better word)side of her persona, too, that many of her ilk do not have. I would put my coat over a puddle for her any time! I like Brad very much, too. Talented couple. Bless their every move and wishing them and their children lots of happiness and contentment. Hope they can make each other happy for the rest of their lives. Hmm, my fingers don’t want to stop typing about Angelina. I would like to dedicate The Doors LA Woman to her. She conjures the spirit of LA just the same as that album.
Commenters are begin unfair, she is a successful woman, lots of tenacity and lots of heart who wants to do some positive in the world – all good.
Can’t say I’m a fan of many of her films – though Maleficent was amazing film to trip through – but she has made Tyler Durden happy and for that I’m grateful.
Her UN work, I’m always torn on that. Celeb does something good with their public image, they’re just trying to better their public image. But if a celeb doesn’t do something good with their profile, well, then they’re a selfish pig.
I admit I just don’t let them win either way on that. But her cancer statements were brave, and personal, and if they helped some women I won’t do anything other than give her credit for it.