How Angelina Jolie transformed herself from being awkward to graceful
Angelina Jolie is all things sassy! She has an undeniable aura around her, which she has been carrying since the start. That time, it was raw, now it's more dignified. Having started her career at 17, Jolie has a come a long way. Today as she turns 46, let's revisit her top interviews and see how she has matured up over the years.
This goes way back to the late 1990s, when Jolie, the phenomenon, was waiting to arrive. When she gave interviews for promoting films like Girl, Interrupted and The Bone Collector, both released in 1999, we see her as this awkward girl, who didn't seem that keen to talk. But while explaining her roles and thought behind it, she had this excitement like a teenager.
In the Bone Collector interview, she appeared high, used lots of "you know"s, and said random things that deviated from the main question. The 24-year-old could be heard saying, "what am I talking," and then quickly masking it up with some other irrelevant words. But the main highlight of this interview remains when she's asked of her beauty, perfect cheekbones and those dreamy eyes.
Jolie, stunning all, said that she's not confident of her looks. Expressing angst at the importance physical beauty gets, she said, "It gets me angry when they want to change you to be too perfect...or adjust you to be something that's not human." Well said!
According to Hollywood insiders, Jolie's rebellious image was frowned upon. She invited a lot of wrath for her controversies. This wild streak in her possibly got tamed when she started dating Brad Pitt. In a 2015 talk, we see them covering a lot of topics: Her mastectomy, removal of ovaries, menopause, emotional challenges, etc. Pitt even jokingly said, "She has no business in kitchen."
Throughout the interview, we could see Pitt being in awe of Jolie, while the latter maintained her poise. She now behaved as a matured woman, who knew what she wanted from life, how much she should share and what she should divulge to the host.
But it was motherhood that really made Jolie a completely different person. In 2019, when she was already battling a messy separation from Pitt, she was clear that she wanted her kids to know about her profession. "It's a part of their life. But it's not important to them, a center of their lives in a way that's unhealthy, so it's all fun."
In this talk, she also shared a note for her younger self: "'You've to go through everything— everything leads to something else, and it's you. Hang on.' That's what I would say to my younger self. Just, 'Hang on. You're gonna love being a mom.'"
Cut to the present. She's now set to make her MCU debut and has spent almost three decades in showbiz. A long, long way. In the process, her personality has undergone a sea change, her personal life has become less convoluted than before (barring the custody battle and other related things), and she has an eye-catching Italianate Revival villa in Los Feliz, California.
The British Vogue team visited her this March and she asked them to stay for two days to observe her daily life with her six children. "Laughter, chatter, food, rabbits, dogs, lizards, political debate, music appreciation, impromptu haircuts and Zoom meetings are all part of the day-to-day," observes the magazine. This interview captured Jolie, the actor, woman, mother, and the unchanged "rebel at heart."
Talking about her "love-hate relationship with the UN," the actress said, "I went through a phase of being shocked and angry about a system that tolerates millions being displaced by war, genocide and persecution. "I'm still just as angry about injustice, but whereas my younger self wanted to tear down the system, I've learned I've to fight to try to change it from within."
