Whether she’s tackling films, family, or philanthropy, Angelina Jolie has never been one for small measures. As she prepares to terrify children worldwide as Disney’s deliciously evil Maleficent (the film opens on May 30th), the actress and director works with Saint Laurent creative director Hedi Slimane on a shoot that spotlights her stripped down, very real self for ELLE’s June cover—as well as a 16-page portfolio that will be featured in more than 20 editions of ELLE around the world.
Jolie spoke candidly with ELLE deputy editor Maggie Bullock about life with her fast-growing children (Shiloh’s got a half-pipe!), doing only the work that really matters (including the biggest passion project of her career), and why she and Brad are still passionate and “more interested in each other” than ever.
In this exclusive preview, Jolie reflects on the perception of her early years in the spotlight:
The tumult of her twenties, was “misinterpreted as [me] wanting to be rebellious,” Jolie says. “And in fact it wasn’t a need to be destructive or rebellious—it’s that need to find a full voice, to push open the walls around you. You want to be free. And as you start to feel that you are being corralled into a certain life, you kind of push against it. It may come out very strange, it may be interpreted wrong, but you’re trying to find out who you are.”
What she hit upon was a deep and abiding fear “of a life half-lived,” she says. “I realized that very young—that a life where you don’t live to your full potential, or you don’t experiment, or you’re afraid, or you hesitate, or there are things you know you should do but you just don’t get around to them, is a life that I’d be miserable living, and the only way to feel that I’m on the right path is just to be true to myself, whatever that may be, and that tends to come with stepping out of something that’s maybe safe or traditional.”
On what she used to think her life would be like…
Category: family
Brad Pitt bans children from watching ’12 Years…’
Actor Brad Pitt says he will not let his children watch “12 Years A Slave”, which he has co-produced.
The 50-year-old, who has six children – Maddox, 12, Pax, 10, Zahara, nine, Shiloh, seven, and Knox and Vivienne, five, however, may let his eldest son Maddox watch it.
Set in the 1900s “12 Years a Slave” is the story of Solomon Northup, a free black man from upstate New York, who is abducted and sold into slavery.
“Maybe my eldest I would, right now. I`d rather (wait) for the others to get a little bit older and understand the dynamics of the world a little more,” Pitt said in a statement.
Talking about the depiction of issues like slavery and racial discrimination in the movie, he said: “It`s one of those few films that cuts to the base of our humanity, it`s why I got into film in the first place.”
BP Gallery Update
• x080 Geneva, Switzerland (11/23/05).
• x004 Los Angeles, CA (09/27/06).
• x027 Sydney, Australia (11/29/13).
• x002 London, UK (12/01/13).
• x001 Fury: On set.
Jolie winner of the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award
In an emotional night, Angelina Jolie became the youngest ever winner of the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award on Saturday.
Also taking home honorary Oscars at the fifth annual Governors Awards were Angela Lansbury, Steve Martin (who choked up during his acceptance speech), and Italian costume designer Piero Tosi, who was unable to attend.
“My family, my love, your love and support make everything possible,” said a clearly emotional Jolie, 38, who attended the event with fiancé Brad Pitt and eldest son Maddox. “Mad, and your brothers and sisters, there is no greater honor than being your mom.”
Marcheline Bertrand, who died of ovarian cancer in 2007, was never far from Jolie’s mind on a night that honored the actress’s humanitarian efforts with the UN Refugee Agency, Doctors Without Borders and Global Action for Children.
“My mom loved art,” said the actress, who flew in from directing Unbroken in Australia. “She wanted for [brother James Haven] and I to have the life of an artist.”
Jolie added, “She believed nothing would mean anything if you didn’t lead a life that was of use to others.”
Read more. Beautiful speech. Brad attended together with their oldest son Maddox.
Brad – the man
I first met Brad Pitt in 2011 when he was in Cancun at the annual Summer of Sony event. He came out of the elevator and I looked at my colleague who had just complained about the lack of handsome men in journalism thinking – well he was cute. It took a couple of seconds before we realized it was Brad… Anyway, he stayed for a few days at the same hotel and he brought four of his kids with him. He also brought his brother, who looks exactly like him, just a bit tanner skin and a few more pounds around the waistline (Brad is really skinny in real life). One day I had a lunch at the restaurant outside the hotel next to the family while Brad himself was busy giving interviews.
Brad Pitt put swear jar on World War Z set
The actor – who has kids Maddox, 11, Pax, nine, Zahara, eight, Shiloh, six, and four-year-old twins Knox and Vivienne with fiancee Angelina Jolie – tried to prevent cast and crew on the set of the zombie apocalypse movie from swearing in front of the youngsters who played his on screen daughters.
Mireille Enos – who plays Brad’s wife in the movie – told People magazine: “He started a swearing jar. If anybody swore around the kids, they had to put a pound in the jar. Those kids went home rich.”
Pitt, 49, also worked hard to keep the girls entertained on set, even performing magic tricks for them.
Enos added: “He’s as normal as any guy you can meet and he’s such a natural at being a dad. He would bring games, tell funny stories and do magic tricks for the girls who played our daughters.”
Pitt’s adopted son Maddox had a small cameo in ‘World War Z’ as a zombie and the youngster loved being in an action film.
Pitt said: “Maddox has got a small piece in it. He’s a zombie who then gets shot. I don’t know what that says about my parenting! (My kids) love these kinds of things and that’s the thing that first drew me to it.”
Brad Pitt reveals why Jolie went public
Just hours before a Tuesday afternoon interview with USA TODAY, his partner Angelina Jolie revealed in a New York Times op-ed that she has undergone a double mastectomy and reconstruction after learning she carried the BRCA1 gene mutation, which doctors estimated gave her an 87% chance of developing breast cancer.
How is Pitt feeling? “I’m quite emotional about it, of course,” said the World War Z star. “She could have stayed absolutely private about it and I don’t think anyone would have been none the wiser with such good results. But it was really important to her to share the story and that others would understand it doesn’t have to be a scary thing. In fact, it can be an empowering thing, and something that makes you stronger and us stronger.”
Brad Pitt: Jolie’s choice ‘absolutely heroic’
“This is a happy day for our family,” the star says.
Brad Pitt has issued a statement to London’s Evening Standard on partner Angelina Jolie’s decision to have a double mastectomy.
“Having witnessed this decision firsthand, I find Angie’s choice, as well as many others like her, absolutely heroic,” Pitt said in the statement. “I thank our medical team for their care and focus.”
“All I want is for her to have a long and healthy life, with myself and our children,” Pitt continued. “This is a happy day for our family.”
In a New York Times op-ed story written by Angelina Jolie and titled My Medical Choice, the star, 37, explained that she spent the last three months undergoing and recovering from a double mastectomy.
Jolie, who lost her mother to ovarian cancer, writes, “My chances of developing breast cancer have dropped from 87% to under 5%,” Jolie writes. “I can tell my children that they don’t need to fear they will lose me to breast cancer.”
The Real Life of Brangelina
When I met Brad Pitt the day after Easter, he was so tired that he was perhaps more reflective than usual. He had just finished a week of spring break with his family. He had camped out with them the night before on his property north of Santa Barbara, and he had woken up, he said, too early, as well as too wet. They had slept in tents, four of his six children, along with two of their friends, and then he had gotten all of them in a van and driven them down to LA.
“Angie too?” I asked.
“Yeah,” he said. “Angie too.”
I told him that I’d met her a few years before, when I profiled her for Esquire. She was making a movie about the wife of the murdered journalist Daniel Pearl, and the thesis of my story was that while 9/11 was supposed to make us all better — a better country and a better people — it only worked for Angelina Jolie. The story has won a kind of immortality as “The Worst Celebrity Profile Ever Written,” and when I told that to Angelina Jolie’s partner, he at first laughed and said that he hoped Esquire would use that as the title of the profile I was writing about him. Then he got serious. “But you were right,” he said. “You were right, you were right. Angie is….the best person…..”
Read more. Tom Junod’s profile of Brad Pitt will appear in the June/July issue of Esquire, which is on newsstands at the end of the month.
Angelina Jolie: My Medical Choice
MY MOTHER fought cancer for almost a decade and died at 56. She held out long enough to meet the first of her grandchildren and to hold them in her arms. But my other children will never have the chance to know her and experience how loving and gracious she was.
We often speak of “Mommy’s mommy,” and I find myself trying to explain the illness that took her away from us. They have asked if the same could happen to me. I have always told them not to worry, but the truth is I carry a “faulty” gene, BRCA1, which sharply increases my risk of developing breast cancer and ovarian cancer.
My doctors estimated that I had an 87 percent risk of breast cancer and a 50 percent risk of ovarian cancer, although the risk is different in the case of each woman.
Only a fraction of breast cancers result from an inherited gene mutation. Those with a defect in BRCA1 have a 65 percent risk of getting it, on average.
Once I knew that this was my reality, I decided to be proactive and to minimize the risk as much I could. I made a decision to have a preventive double mastectomy. I started with the breasts, as my risk of breast cancer is higher than my risk of ovarian cancer, and the surgery is more complex.
On April 27, I finished the three months of medical procedures that the mastectomies involved. During that time I have been able to keep this private and to carry on with my work.
FYI. You can also visit Breastcancer.org and The American Cancer Society to learn more and perhaps donate.
Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt: No Elephants at Our Wedding
When rumors began swirling that Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt intended to have live elephants as part of their wedding celebration, PETA wasn’t buying it—after all, the couple had donated $2 million to an African wildlife sanctuary. A rep confirmed to us that Angelina and Brad have no intention of showcasing captive wild animals at their celebration and encouraged PETA to dispel the nasty rumor.
No they are not married…
In case you rung in the new year by avoiding all entertainment-related news, a quick recap on breaking Hollywood developments: Hugh Hefner has married a woman 60 years his junior; Kim Kardashian is pregnant with Kanye West’s baby and is celebrating with suspected fro-yo photo ops; Russell Crowe is valiantly fielding criticism of his Les Misérables performance on Twitter; and Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie may have legalized their reign as the world’s most genetically perfect couple with a wedding. About the latter item, which has mutated into hundreds of “Are Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie Married?”–variant headlines on the Internet today…
Read more. So yeah, just a rumor guys. Unless stated otherwise by trustworthy sources in the near future.
