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Disheartening
RD: Your father said recently that he wants to reconcile and repair the damage he's done. Are you interested?Jolie: No, no. I think it's not something you tell the press; I think it's something you do in your private life. Fortunately, I got to a place in my life where I realized that, no matter what he said, I was a good person, and a good friend, and I am a good mother. And because I'm an adoptive mother, I don't see blood as family. I see time and love -- you earn it. You can't just call yourself a father.
I don't hate my father. I don't blame him for divorcing my mother, or having affairs. He went off path. I don't respect the way he treated my family as I was growing up. But we survived, and we're a good family. I just don't want to dedicate one more tear, or watch my mother cry one more time.
RD: Your son has gone from being an orphan in a poor village to the adored son of a movie star. You know what the challenges are of being a movie star's child. How are you going to deal with that?
Jolie: He will occasionally be a part of Hollywood, and visit me on the set. But he will know what the real world is, and how much his mother cares about that. He travels with me on all my UN trips. He's already got two passports -- his first one's full.
RD: Do you want to adopt again?
Jolie: I have a dream of having children from around the world and letting them grow up together. I'm going to see how I handle two and three, because I'm a single mother, and it's not easy. I'd love to have eight, but I don't know if I could.
RD: Tell us about your work in the refugee camps, and your work with the UN.
Jolie: It wasn't intentional. I went to Cambodia for Tomb Raider, and it dawned on me how much I didn't know, that there was a country where I couldn't walk in certain areas because it was riddled with land mines. Then I learned that my own country hadn't signed a treaty to ban land mines. I traveled more and began reading. I read about the UNHCR -- United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. You realize there were refugees since the dawn of time. Nearly 20 million people are under the care of the UNHCR. I thought, How is that possible?
RD: You've started foundations ...
Jolie: I have the Maddox Relief Project, which deals with Cambodia, and my Jolie Foundation, which helps children in orphanages. Then there's an animal orphanage in Namibia I work with.
RD: Do you work in places in the United States that have needs?
Jolie: I'm part Native American -- Iroquois Indian on my mother's side. I have an organization called the All Tribes Foundation that's been trying to do a lot with Pine Ridge reservation, working through the elders. And I sponsor a poster contest every year in grade schools. Students draw pictures for Refugee Day in Washington. To get thousands of children thinking about that issue is great. If there's a kid in school that's from another country, instead of making fun, maybe they'll be more open to where he came from, or what he fought through.
RD: Do you get puzzled stares in Hollywood for your involvement in this work?
Jolie: I'll get, "What are you reading?" I'll say, "Oh, something about Burma." And they'll say something like, "That's great. Are you going on vacation?" There are a lot of good people, too, and I'd like to find a way they could help. I had a fund-raiser at my house for [banning] land mines a few years ago. There were 40 people and great speakers. I think the money raised by all those people, who had quite a lot of money, was maybe twice what I paid to put the event together. So if the party was $2,000, it raised $4,000. I know the money I have. I know what those people have. I was kind of disheartened that there was not as much generosity. So I haven't had another fund-raiser. I'd rather just give it from my own pocket.
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