Angelina Jolie: "I'm not as strong as I was before"
After her divorce from Brad Pitt, the actress shows her most vulnerable face, away from the image of a strong and perfect woman
Angelina Jolie never fails to amaze. Like the great artists, the star, the mother, the benefactor, the ex-wife, the actress has gone through all the phases. She had a crazy, rebellious period, in which she spoke without qualms about her bisexuality, she exchanged vials of blood for wedding rings and kisses on the mouth with her brother. She then she reached her stage as an ambassador for UNHCR, as concerned about world conflicts as about keeping the guy on the red carpet. She became the perfect mother (of six children), the perfect wife (of Brad Pitt), the director of five productions in a men's industry. Jolie was even the perfect patient, able to publicly share her fight against cancer.
And there are more Angels. "Twelve", she admits in conversation last weekend with this newspaper. But it is the latter that is the most surprising. Because in front of the perfect Jolie who can handle everything, her last public appearances, her words, her interviews, have opened the door to her insecurities, to her fragility, to that humanity that before disappeared between so much perfection. "Sometimes I know that I give the impression that I can handle everything but the truth is that all I try is to reach the end of the day", she is sincere.
She is in promotion with her latest directorial job, First They Killed My Father, and after the agreed silence that followed her split from Brad Pitt, she doesn't stop talking. In Los Angeles, at the Telluride Festival and soon at the Toronto Festival. She says that she takes it well even though it is tough. “I feel a little more shy. I'm not as strong as I was before, ”she acknowledges.
In health she is doing well. She says it from the rooftops if only to silence those perennial rumors that she is too thin. In person, her features attract more attention than her kilos, with an affable smile that invites conversation and a confident look even when she confesses her weaknesses. She is happy because she does not have cancer and she is happy about the operations she has undergone even though she admits that she was "a stick to the body" all she had to undergo. Yet she acknowledges that she would have to take care of her more than herself, find more time for herself. “They tell me often. But I love being a mother, ”she says.
The new Angelina even allows herself to talk about her own mortality. Happy with the close fraternal ties that exist between her biological and adopted children (Maddox, 15; Pax, 13; Zahara, 12; Shiloh, 11; and twins Vivienne and Knox, 9), she assures that she could die in peace. Luckily, her “heaven” is on this earth, in her house in Cambodia, the birthplace of Maddox and the country where First They Killed My Father has just filmed, centered on the story of a girl during the regime of the Khmer Rouge. She has made the film, like all the ones in which she has worked as a director, to highlight what is happening in the world. But she no longer fools herself as before. “There are so many wars that they don't end. And it will not be for not talking about them. So I don't know how much this story can help, ”she admits disappointed. But she immediately comes upstairs talking about the twins, Knox, who learns to pilot like the rest of her brothers even though she barely reaches the pedals, and Vivienne, the one who really controls the television remote.
She is also motivated by her founding. The projects of her in Nairobi, in Cambodia and the classes that she teaches at the London School of Economics of the London university. “Much of the reason I teach there is that the students are so bright that I can learn from them,” she explains.
Brad Pitt is not mentioned by his name although his shadow weighs on the atmosphere throughout the conversation. She confesses that 10 years ago she would never have imagined being single like she is now. The term "Brangelina" was coined 12 years ago and it seemed like it was going to last forever. After her separation, in her fragility there is optimism. She has no idea what the next decade will bring him but she wants to take it in a good mood. "I hope there are no grandchildren," she says. And she adds: "Now what I need is to recover a bit of my other self, the one that I lost a bit when feeling overwhelmed," she sums up.
