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Focused on the World
Angelina Jolie lives in two worlds: Hollywood, where she makes movies and stays in five-star hotels, and the refugee camps of Africa and Asia, where she works with the UN, bringing hope to the homeless. She feels most alive, most herself, she says, working with people who've endured great losses yet still feel grateful for life.At 24, Jolie won an Oscar for playing a sociopath in Girl, Interrupted, but found little satisfaction in stardom or the wealth that came with it. The daughter of actor Jon Voight and actress Marcheline Bertrand, she had already seen the downside of celebrity -- her parents divorced when Jolie was a toddler. And she now says the exploits of her wild-child youth were mostly an attempt to fill an emptiness she felt inside. After she finished shooting Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, Jolie volunteered to be a UN ambassador and returned to Cambodia to visit refugee camps. She found a calling, and realized that her fame and money could be used to accomplish a world of good.
Now the mother of son Maddox, 3, whom she adopted in Cambodia, Angelina Jolie hopes to adopt more children. We caught up with her in Beverly Hills on a day away from the set. She talked to us about her role as the mother of Alexander the Great (played by Colin Farrell) in her new movie, Alexander, her passion for helping the dispossessed, and her longing for a partner with whom she might share it all.
RD: Did you always want children?
Jolie: I always felt that I wasn't going to be a mother. I knew that to be a parent, nothing about me could be self-destructive, or unsure day to day. I never thought I could be that balanced.
RD: So your son helped you find the balance?
Jolie: He did calm me down, and I have a sense of peace. It made me tougher, because I changed my life overnight, to make our life better. It's the greatest thing that ever happened in my life, my son.
RD: You first saw Maddox when you went to Cambodia for the UN. Did he pick you, or did you pick him?
Jolie: I think it was mutual. I had never held a baby in my life. I was one of those women -- people would say, "Do you want to hold my baby?" and I was like "No ... "
There were about 14 kids in the orphanage, and he was the last child I saw. They put him in my arms, and he was still asleep. Then they put him in a bath, and he stayed asleep. Then I sat with him and he opened his eyes and just stared at me for the longest time. Then he smiled.
RD: How old was he?
Jolie: Three months when I met him, seven months when he came home.
RD: Was it a big adjustment?
Jolie: I felt like I needed to earn being a mother, so in some ways I made it overly difficult. In our house, no one helped me. I'd shower while Maddox was in a bouncy thing, or try to brush my teeth with him attached to me. A few times, I came down in a blanket without a shirt on, because I couldn't figure out how to do it while I was holding him.
RD: Your marriage to Billy Bob Thornton was breaking up around then.
Jolie: Yes, it was a difficult time for my marriage, but it was the happiest time in my life as a woman.
RD: I read that Billy Bob said about you, "I was afraid of her. She was too beautiful, too smart. She had too much integrity. I felt small next to her." Are men afraid of you?
Jolie: I'm not very settled. The positive side of that is I'm on fire all the time, to try anything. The negative side is there isn't a lot of time for me to sit and watch a movie and hold hands. I tend to not be inside my relationships. I tend to be more focused on the world. It takes a certain kind of man to love those things.
RD: Does a child need a father?
Jolie: I have men in my life. I have a brother. So Maddox will have male teachers. I was raised without a father.
RD: But you knew who your father was. You saw him sometimes.
Jolie: Yeah, but I don't necessarily think that's better. I didn't have a good relationship with my father. Growing up, I saw my mother very stressed, often, and crying a lot. I didn't want that for my son. I believe the only people that should be around a child and raising a child are people who absolutely, 100 percent love that child.
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