Good lord, all I have to see is Angelina Jolie’s profile and I’m back in love with her. Jolie has one of the best profiles in Hollywood, hand to God! Anyway, the new issue of The Hollywood Reporter is “The Rule Breakers” and Angelina has one of the covers. The issue features people like Chris Pratt, Viola Davis, Taylor Swift and the people who worked on Boyhood. I’m just going to be covering the Jolie piece in this post. Go here to read the full THR piece, and here are some highlights:
A moment for Shiloh: “Mom? I saw this thing over there — can I skateboard on it?” The “thing” is a freshly painted cyclorama inside the Los Angeles photo studio where, on a sunny day in November, Jolie is being photographed for her THR cover. And the blond girl in the hoodie who wants to skateboard on its rad curved surfaces is none other than Shiloh Jolie-Pitt, arguably the most genetically advantaged 8-year-old on Earth. Also possibly the most self-assured (“Wassup!” she greets a stranger, flashing a cocky grin). But the answer is no, Shiloh may not skateboard on the cyc wall.
Jolie has never had a plan: “I never had a plan for my life. I do what I want to do. And if suddenly tomorrow I couldn’t do anything, I could deal with that. I’d be happy at home being a mom.”
The inclusion of the words “buttuck fudduck” on her wedding gown: “I still don’t know exactly what that means,” Jolie says with a shrug.
She only does projects she believes in: “I can’t do things I don’t believe in. I’m just not that sort of person — I’m bad at it.”
Working with Brad on By the Sea: “Yes, we spent our honeymoon playing two people in a terrible marriage. I’m sure a therapist would have a field day analyzing the films I choose to do. But it’s been 10 years since Brad and I have worked together. It felt like it was time.”
She doesn’t have a team: She has no publicist (“I had one once, years ago — I didn’t like it”), nor does she have a manager (she split with longtime rep Geyer Kosinski last year) or even an agent helping her find acting gigs (Richard Klubeck at UTA represents her for directing). “I like to work very directly with people,” she says. “I don’t want somebody in the middle. I’d rather speak for myself.”
She isn’t crazy about acting anymore: “I don’t want to be in hair and makeup, I don’t want to be in wardrobe, I don’t want to have to stand on a mark or emote. It makes me feel like a caged tiger.”
Bored & sloppy? “There have been times in my career when I’ve gotten bored and sloppy. But I’ve done my best to listen to my gut. Because I feel you can do whatever you want in this life. So long as you don’t hurt anybody, you can do anything.”
It should be noted that the entire interview took place in November, pre-chicken pox, and that Zahara and Shiloh were playing Clue during their mother’s interview. Can you play Clue with only two people? Maybe they had a friend there too. Anyway, this piece is sort of interesting. I’ve never heard Angelina admit that she half-assed anything or ever got “bored and sloppy.” Perhaps she was thinking about her accent work in Alexander?! (Ha.) But if you read the full interview, there are lots of quotes from powerful people who love and respect her. Like, Universal chairman Donna Langley, who refers to Angelina as “the A student” who is always the “most prepared” in the room.
PS… I’ll be covering the additional Sony Hack stuff in regards to Angie & Cleo in a separate post. Please don’t threadjack.
Photos courtesy of THR.
She is gorgeous
Right?! By ANY definition~
Nobody has a right to be that damn beautiful. There oughta be a law.
Yes. She’s such a stunner.
She is so ridiculously beautiful. And Shiloh is a hoot, love her.
Really great article. Her interviews are always interesting to read. The pictures are beautiful.
Sorry, but I’m not so into that newly generated image as a fulltime mom and gracious blabla attitude and this false modesty. Very appropriate to her new kind of magazine shoots, her look as an epitome of kindness and altruism. I don’t know what’s her intention is, but fpr me this woman is a mystery
As someone who is a fan I have read her interviews over the years and people’s opinions about her (people that know her that is) and she has remained amazingly consistent. So I don’t understand the “newly generated image” comment because she has been saying a variation of the same thing for her entire career.
Call me crazy then, because I ain’t buying the BS she’s selling.
Just because you don’t want to believe it, doesn’t make it BS.
Ugh, seriously? Why can’t we have one thread about one woman that doesn’t not-so-subtlely bring up the other? Geezus. Can’t someone just not like AJ (or the other) without it being about being a fan of the other? After ten years, this is really ridiculous. For all the smart comments I see on other threads (and why I read this gossip blog), it is guaranteed that an AJ or JA post will devolve into ridic comments like these.
And now the comment I replied to is gone, so I look crazy… 🙂
Completely my opinion, this woman is definitely too much to be true. You are not alone
@Manatee: I find that’s what makes her interesting. There is nothing more boring than predictability.
Great profile
Great read!
Well I was ready to give my two cents about the whole sony hack but since you said not to thread jack! Will hold on… 🙂
Good to be back on CB
Gorgeous woman with a wonderful passion for life.
She clearly knows her own strengths and weakness and works according to that.
Her and Brad I can see stay together forever – you can just see/feel the love whenever they are pictured together. That kind of thing in rare and cannot be faked no matter how good an actress/actor you are.
What’s really funny is all the people who claim she can’t act at all, yet then turn around and say that her relationship with Brad is fake but she’s an actress so she makes it look real for pr. The irony just goes right over their heads. I think they are a great match that will last the long haul until death do them part.
I think the actual process of making a movie must be torture. I don’t know how anybody stands it or does good work with the constant repetition, interruption and just standing around waiting. I saw Woody Allen (before I knew he was a child molester) in New York, shooting a scene walking down the steps of a museum and getting into a cab. I just happened upon it and stopped to watch. After I got there, they repeated it twenty times. Twenty times. Just walking down steps and getting into a cab. What must it be like when you actually have to speak? I know they get paid a fortune, but it must be terrible in it’s own way. Not saying I wouldn’t do it for that much money, but after I made my little pile, I would want to move on, too.
I was at a studio in Hollywood once watching them film a TV pilot. 5 hours to film a 30 minute show.
Ugh. Torture. Well-paid torture, but still.
I was an extra years ago in a Denzel Washington movie. Three hours at a cold football stadium to film a scene in which only 10 minute made it to the big screen. Won’t be quitting my day-job.
Let me guess, you were at Etowah High School? 😀
I can totally understand what she means by sloppy, like I’m obviously not an actor, but there have been moments in my career where I thought “this isn’t my best.”
People love to hate on her, but, she’s a master in what she does–she knows how to play the game, furthermore, I’ve always felt that whatever role she does take on matters to her.
Those pictures are great too.
When she passes, she will have a plethora of magnificent and nostalgic photos that future generations can fawn over. These are great shots.
Wow she is a beauty.
Please don’t be mad at me, but in the last photo, she looks like the Royal Kate upgrade.
You b*tch! I bet you wouldn’t say that about Jennifer Anniston!
No, I can see that. There’s a resemblance.
Ah I see you’ve forgone getting db’d on a Swifty thread in favor of unleashing a bowl full on a AJ thread. Well played, Kidoo.
Also: Charlie Hunnam’s Hair of Bramhall is waiting for you…
I saw it. NOT BRAMHALLicious enough. More like the crazy musical conductor of 1920. I might let that slide with one less shirt and a bowl of Belgium chocolate icecream.
Angelina just seems so smart to me. Her interviews are always interesting to me.
As for this supposed new image, people who actual know her always say how nice/respectful she is and professional. So she’s always been like we see now.
on another news, the office of Ms Bangura today announced another successful conviction of a senior military officer for rape and slavery.
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=49620#.VJLdqThXfCR
i hope that these convictions continue to happen and be applied elsewhere in the world as well.
i also read that they are also applying new training to physicians and community leaders to help rape survivors, which i hope can go a ways away to erase the stigma on the victims.
that’s nice.
LOL @ “buttuck fudduck”. Yeah, she is something! I love the way she expresses herself so clearly and from the gut as she says, can’t wait for Shiloh to grow up and create havoc! Hahaha…
She’s gorgeous and really, Shiloh is so cool!
I love Angelina…that is all!
That bored and sloppy thing happens to everyone, and not only with career. Most notably, moms with 4 month old infants.
That’s because she’s boring and sloppy.
Her profile is ridiculously beautiful.
An Shiloh seems a riot. So assured, she takes after her mother, no?
Shiloh is going to be JUST like her mother. Which is probably what her mother warned her about, lol.
you know, i think i understand now her frustrations (and the frustration of other actresses) with the Hollywood system after “Reading the Sony”.
i know not all the producers are like Rudin but i think a lot of the actors and actresses are expected to just “shut up and stand on the mark and smile”.
and knowing Angelina, i see why acting gives her no joy or love. the actors she’s directed, from Zana Marjanovic, to Jack O’Connell, to Melanie Laurent said how collaborative she was with them, that they really think that Angelina wants and appreciates their input in going forward.
so i understand that if she said she loves directing more than acting is that she gets more freedom than what is afforded to actors and actresses by the studio system.
Melanie Laurent, who actually has more directing experience than Angelina (i think, might be wrong) actually said almost the same thing too: the system treats actors like robots to do their bidding. highly paid, highly praised robot. which is why Melanie likes directing too, because it gives her collaborative power (and give power to her collaborators). she does mainly community-based docus i think.
That’s a good point. The next time an actor makes a comment about being bored with acting, I probably won’t side eye them as much. I think that acting/directing/producing/writing should be a collaborative effort. I think films would be a lot better, if there was more collaboration from a variety of writers, ideas, etc. Why have ten people in the room, coming from the same viewpoint, who are picking/writing the movies that everyone, with hundreds of thousands of different life stories are going to go see. A lot of people just don’t want to admit their idea sucks, OR, more to the point, isn’t as good as another person’s idea. A lot of it is ego, and you know when it’s your ego that’s getting away. At least I do–I know when I get upset that someone didn’t like, or thought of something better than what I came up with.
I remember being amazed with MasterChef Junior, with how well the kids did–heads above the adult version of the show. Because they’re a lot more willing to learn, to make mistakes, and to ask for help.
Surely then she’d want to produce, not direct. The vast majority of directors are completely under the producers thumb, in an even more direct way than actors. Unless you’re one of the most profitable directors, a living legend who’s earned some lee-way or an auteur who makes very small budget films, you put on film what you’re told to put on film, and then you watch as someone else puts the pieces together.
Can somebody photoshop that profile with a kid’n play fade? Please?
Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous.
I can’t remember the last film she made that was really good. A Mighty Heart I guess, which is still my least favourite Winterbottom film. And before that there’s Mr & Mrs. Smith, which is good for what it is, and then Girl Interrupted I suppose, which isn’t amazing or anything. The rest of her filmography swings between the mediocre and the really, really bad.
I’m surprised directing is something she’s moved into. Most directors love film, even the hacks, but she’s never seemed at all interested in the finished product. She takes a film because she like’s aspects of her particular character and doesn’t care/notice that every other part of the film is a hot mess. So in that way I think she’s sloppy, yes, even now. The fact that everyone who’s read the Cleopatra script thinks it’s rubbish doesn’t seem to concern her at all, and she was pushing to film that script before she’d even read it. She’s definitely not a perfectionist when it comes to her work.
Then quit acting she keeps saying that over and over. Her movies aren’t all that either.