Super Angelina Jolie: actress, director and screenwriter
Six children, an Oscar and an important role at the United Nations. But that's not enough for Angelina Jolie: the American actress is proving to be a talented screenwriter and director. Exclusive meeting for Marie Claire.
Committed woman and accomplished artist, Angelina Jolie never ceases to be talked about. Meeting with an extraordinary star.
Angelina Jolie: Oscar-winning actress
It's a misty, cold afternoon, and all is calm on King’s Road, Chelsea’s main thoroughfare, one of London’s most upscale areas. Suddenly, a limousine pulls up in front of an Indian restaurant window to drop off one of the world's most famous women, wearing aviator-style sunglasses with gold rims, despite the overcast skies. Angelina Jolie motioned for me to accompany her into the restaurant. There is nobody: the actress has had the place privatized. Dressed in black from head to toe, she wears no makeup, necklace or earrings. Simplicity embodied. But for once we won't be talking about Angelina Jolie as a glamorous icon.
Both Oscar-winning actress, provocative and disruptive tattooed mermaid turned activist of the United Nations, Angelina Jolie adds to her long list of professional successes the careers of screenwriter and director. Her first film, "In the Land of Blood and Honey" explores the horrors of war in the former Yugoslavia through a love story between Danijel, a Serbian officer, and Ajla, a Muslim woman imprisoned in a labor camp. A heartbreaking film, because it can't be otherwise. Angelina Jolie scrupulously follows historical facts. Like other conflicts of the 20th century, the war led by the Serbs against the Bosnian Muslims was the scene of all atrocities: death camps, ethnic cleansing, massacres of civilians, innocent people used as human shields, rapes of women by the thousands. … Besides, what the heroine of the film, played by Zana Marjanovic, experiences and endures during the first half hour is almost unbearable.
"That such horrors could have occurred in the 90s just forty minutes from Italy, at the very moment when 'Schindler's list' was playing on our screens, is hardly conceivable", explains Angelina, shocked by the absurd barbarism of this war. “There is no valid justification for such atrocious acts as raping and killing people you have lived with forever. "
"I obviously wondered what would have happened if I had been my hero myself," says the actress, who knows what it means to love through thick and thin. "If I was in love with someone and we found ourselves opposed in a conflict, how much could I remain open to the other, and when would I close? Would it be love or survival? "
Angelina Jolie: director
For Angelina Jolie, writing this film began with a personal questioning: “I thought no one would read my script. But quickly this project took up most of his time. "I wrote the darker passages during art class with Shiloh (her daughter, editor's note), who sat in the back of the classroom while I waited for the session to end. Brad read it, then friends took an interest in it. But I really couldn't see who could do it for me, it was my project. There you go… ”Angelina starts playing nervously with her ring, pulling it off and putting it back on. She fervently believes that she did the best she could, not so much to flatter her ego as to pay tribute to the lives of those Bosnians who believed in her ability to tell the story of their suffering.
I am not very sociable
Angelina says she particularly enjoyed being able to work closely with Bosnian actresses (see box). “I was very interested in leading women; I don't have a lot of "girlfriends" in the movies, did you notice? She sighs, implying that the situation is the same off camera. "I have friends of course, but I'm a homebody, I often prefer to stay at home. In fact, I am not very social. "
It's hard to imagine what Angelina would be like without this immense capacity to love: she probably wouldn't live as a couple, with six children, three of whom have been adopted.
Angelina orders a good bottle of red wine and pursues Brad Pitt from whom she is now separated (although the situation is not very clear ...) the man who "made her grow so much, and in so many different ways. . We have built a family together. He's not just the love of my life, he's my family. I cherish this idea more than anything. She explains that Brad taught her to "be able to put the happiness and well-being of her whole family before her own." I'm so happy to have a loving family, that I certainly wouldn't have had if he hadn't been there. "
Knox and Vivienne, the two 3-year-old twins, are the youngest of the Jolie-Pitt siblings. “Knox is a real kid,” Angelina says. Very physical and very tough, he loves dinosaurs and swords. "As for Vivienne, she is the complete opposite of Angelina: very" girly ". “Vivi loves to paint her nails and collects stuffed animals. It's a little strange for me to buy all this pink stuff and watch princess movies! "
Angelina Jolie and her family
Angelina Jolie admits she has little time left to enjoy Brad. But at least their children support them: "If they see that mom and dad need a little time for them, to kiss each other and all, that doesn't bother them, on the contrary, the children are happy. . Because they know they are loved. At 42, does Angelina plan to have more children? “Nothing is planned yet,” she said cautiously, before finally blurting out, “I could get pregnant again. "
For obvious personal reasons - the incessant travel, prying eyes - Angelina and Brad decided that their children would attend home schooling. Zahara, now 12, started horseback riding (“She found her passion”), and 11-year-old Shiloh earned his tomboy title by riding miniquads. We wonder who she got… "She's a mix of the two of us," Angelina adds, smiling. Pax, 14, is perhaps the one whose temperament most closely resembles that of his mother. “He's very wild, but he has a huge heart,” she said. At the same time, he will have to be careful later, otherwise he will get into trouble. "
She has never forgotten how Marcheline Bertrand, her own mother, handled her behavior as a rowdy teenager. "My mother never screamed, but since my room was next to hers, I would hear her cry sometimes. If I didn't come home that night without telling her, the next day I could see in her face that she hadn't slept. And that she loved me. "
At the mere mention of this much loved mother, who died of ovarian cancer at the age of 56, almost five years ago, Angelina’s gaze freezes. "I don't want to spread myself, she apologizes. I would like her to be there, I miss her very much. My mother was made to be a grandmother. Now 16-year-old Maddox takes care of his mother. “If I'm doing something and I get angry, he takes my hand and asks, 'Are you tired? Is that why you're not happy? " Yes, he really takes care of me. "
After years of falling out, her relationship with her father, actor Jon Voight, has relaxed a bit. “He met the children; it is important that they get to know their grandfather. We have made it a rule not to bring up the past, ”she explains, alluding to years of discord and wounds, following her father's alleged infidelity which led her parents to separate. Angelina takes a sip of the wine again. “The day mom died, I wanted to write her a letter because I hadn't spoken to her for six years. In the end, I changed my mind and preferred to give him a call. We spoke altogether for two minutes. I wasn't calling him to comfort him, just to give him the information. So it was very brief. "
After two and a half hours of interview, his bodyguards remind him of the time. Brad is heading home, and the family has planned a go-kart trip. She walks me to the door, kisses me and gives me a friendly goodbye smile. Unsurprisingly, I stumble upon a pack of excited paparazzi (Angelina's photos will be online before I even get to my hotel). A moment later, I see the star rushing into his car. The clouds this afternoon have dissipated, revealing a bright sun. Perfect weather for karting.
