What do celebrities think of Angelina Jolie?
Oscar-winning actress Angelina Jolie has been many things to many people. To some, she's a candidate for canonization, highly respected for her humanitarian work in war-torn areas and her decision to adopt three of her six children from developing countries. To others, Jolie is a champion of women's health issues, having written extensively about her decision to undergo preventative surgeries to reduce her cancer risks. She and husband Brad Pitt are one of Hollywood's most powerful couples. Though beloved by millions, not every Tinseltown star adores Jolie. Let's consider some celebs who are not members of her fan club.
Jennifer Aniston
Okay, this one is low hanging fruit. Aniston was married to Pitt when he was filming Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005) with Jolie. This is the movie where Brangelina was born and where the co-stars admit they grew close. Team Aniston vs. Team Jolie was legendary; marketers even made t-shirts. While the actresses had nothing to do with that pop culture nonsense, Aniston did admit to Vogue that Jolie's comments about rushing to work to be with her co-star "were uncool." Aniston also confirmed what felt obvious—that Brangelina happened behind her back. Referencing Jolie's own Vogue interview about Pitt, Aniston said, "There was stuff printed there that was definitely from a time when I was unaware that it was happening. I felt those details were a little inappropriate to discuss."
Chelsea Handler
"Demon." That's what talk show host Chelsea Handler called Jolie on Watch What Happens Live (via Us Weekly). Even for a comic as acid-tongued and sarcastic as Handler, the jokes seemed serious. Handler insisted her disdain was not about Jolie's alleged crimes against Aniston, saying, "It has nothing to do with Jennifer. As a woman, I know when you see somebody walking across the room that's a bad girl. I just don't like Angelina Jolie. I don't think she's a girl's girl. I like girl's girls!" Handler called Jolie a "homewrecker" and other names not suitable for this publication. She said the Maleficent (2014) star "doesn't strike me as someone I would have a close friendship with."
Scott Rudin
You may not know producer Scott Rudin by name, but you've probably seen his films. His work includes Clueless (1995), The First Wives Club (1996), Team America: World Police (2004), No Country for Old Men (2007), and The Social Network (2010). In the great Sony email hack of 2014, his harsh criticisms of Jolie, which were not meant to be seen by the actress, were published for the entire world to read.
Rudin was miffed that the actress was supposedly trying to convince David Fincher (pictured above) to direct her Cleopatra film when Rudin wanted Fincher focused on his Steve Jobs (2015) biopic. "I'm not destroying my career over a minimally talented spoiled brat who thought nothing of shoving this off her plate for eighteen months so she could go direct a movie," Rudin told then-Sony president Amy Pascal (via the New York Daily News). "I have no desire to be making a movie with her, or anybody, that she runs and that we don't."
Wow. That's what we call "zero subtext."
Billy Bob Thornton
The courtship and marriage of Jolie and actor Billy Bob Thornton was marked by unorthodox public displays of affection. They wore lockets with one another's blood around their necks, and Jolie got "Billy Bob" tattooed on her arm. The experience is not something Thornton remembers with a smile. "I mean it was a crazy time," he told The Hollywood Reporter. "I've never been fond of it."
To be fair, Thornton was speaking of a period of time between 1995 and 2003; not necessarily a person. His ex-wife penned the foreward to his autobiography, so we suspect the Monster's Ball (2001) star has made peace with his past.
Laura Dern
Actress Laura Dern has not said much about her opinion of Jolie, but does she really need to? Dern was involved with Thornton when she went to work on a film—much like Pitt did with Aniston—and when she returned, her man was in love with Jolie. #Familiar. The Wild at Heart (1990) actress told Talk magazine (via ABC News), "I left our home to work on a movie, and while I was away, my boyfriend got married, and I've never heard from him again." Granted, we could pin this unsavory situation on Thornton, but hey, it takes two to tango.
Amal Clooney
Pitt is best buds with fellow actor George Clooney. These two A-listers are handsome, rich, talented, and thick as thieves, but don't expect to see them on a double date. Word on the street is that Clooney's wife, Amal Clooney (Alamuddin), harbors a serious distaste for Jolie. Celeb Dirty Laundry reported that Jolie skipped the Clooney wedding because she disagreed with the bride's political views.
Amal is an activist, author, and attorney specializing in human rights and international law. She represented Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, in his fight against extradition. WikiLeaks is the organization that published Rudin's anti-Jolie emails. How's that for six degrees of separation?
Jon Voight
Jolie has had an on-again-off-again relationship with her father, actor Jon Voight. She stopped using his surname and has said that his infidelity toward her mother shattered her. She even said (via Today), "To be intimate with a married man, when my own father cheated on my mother, is not something I could forgive. I could not look at myself in the morning, if I did that." That statement is a head-scratcher considering Jolie has also waxed poetic about falling for the very married Pitt on the set of Mr. and Mrs. Smith (2005). But we digress.
Jolie and her father did act together in the Tomb Raider (2001) franchise, but even then, their relationship was frosty. Voight said his daughter needed mental help, telling Access Hollywood (via Entertainment Weekly), "I haven't come forward and addressed the serious mental problems she has spoken about so candidly to the press over the years, but I've tried behind the scenes in every way."
Though the pair did not speak to one another for a decade, father and daughter reconciled around 2011. Voight has now clearly joined the ranks of Jolie admirers. "My love and admiration for my daughter can't be explained in words," he told the New York Daily News in 2013.
