Angelina Jolie can boast of being one of the most respected and admired actresses in the film industry worldwide. The interpreter, who has starred in films such as Maleficent or Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, will release her next film in 2024, the biopic of María Callas, titled María. She herself has been the actress who has put herself in the shoes of the artist. However, and despite the fact that her professional career has been one of the most successful in film, the actress recently assured the Wall Street Journal that "she would not be an actress today."
The actress has revealed in an interview with the aforementioned media that if she began her professional career today, she would not be part of the Hollywood universe. "When I started, I had no expectations of being such a public figure, of sharing so much," expressed the interpreter of The Tourist. For more than two decades, she has been constantly in the media spotlight, and this would have been the trigger for the actress's rejection of the industry. Her lack of privacy is one of the reasons that has led her to have this opinion.
This media pressure increased after her separation from fellow actor Brad Pitt seven years ago. The stress that Jolie experienced reached such a point that, during the filming of Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, she noticed that her voice had changed register since she first played the villain in the first film. "My body reacts very strongly to stress," Jolie explained. "My blood sugar goes up and down. Suddenly, I had Bell's palsy six months before my divorce," she told the aforementioned media.
The actress has revealed that "she practically does not have a social life" in Los Angeles, since every time she goes out she finds it impossible to lead a normal life, both for the press and for fans. The actress assures that she now plans to spend more time at her house in Cambodia. "It's part of what happened after my divorce. I lost the ability to live and travel with the same freedom. I will move as soon as possible," Angelina said. "I grew up in a fairly superficial place. Of all the places in the world, Hollywood is not a healthy place. What I'm looking for is authenticity," she stated, making it clear that if she can, she will move away from her current residence.
The truth is that this is not the first time that Angelina Jolie has spoken at length about her concerns and personal aspects. Last September, she explained in Vogue magazine that she had taken on fewer professional projects "for seven years" and that she had only accepted "jobs that don't require long shoots." The actress was not in a very good moment on a personal level. "I had a lot to heal. I'm still finding my balance," she then revealed.
Her break in the world of acting coincided with the end of her marriage to Brad Pitt, with whom she had six children (three biological and three adopted): Maddox, Pax, Zahara, Shiloh, Knox and Vivienne. The artist filed for divorce in September 2016, after an alleged physical altercation with the actor. "In a way, I don't feel like I've been myself for the last decade. Although it's something I don't want to get into," she said at the time.
