Angelina Jolie Gets Honest About Fame

“Of all the places in the world, Hollywood is not a healthy place,” the star says

By Elisa Lipsky-Karasz | Photography by Annemarieke Van Drimmelen for WSJ. Magazine | Styling by Tonne Goodman
Dec. 15, 2023
Tap story

It’s been seven years since Angelina Jolie filed for divorce from Brad Pitt, the father of her six children. Seven years, she says, of being mostly at home, of thinking, of avoiding work that pulls her away from her family.

In that time, Jolie has appeared in only five films, nothing compared to the multiple-premieres-per-year pace she had maintained pretty consistently since playing a punk in 1995’s “Hackers.” “We had to heal,” she says.

United Artists/Getty

The last time she walked a red carpet was to promote the 2021 Marvel movie “Eternals.” “I wouldn’t be an actress today,” Jolie says. Maybe theater, she caveats, but not Hollywood. “When I was starting out, it wasn’t as much of an expectation to be as public, to share so much.”

Domenico Stinellis/AP

Jolie got her start in Hollywood thanks in part to her actor parents, Jon Voight and Marcheline Bertrand. Her first job was in her father’s film “Lookin’ to Get Out,” which premiered when she was 7.

Ron Galella/Getty

She was in her early 20s when she landed “Girl, Interrupted.” The role won Jolie a 2000 Oscar for best supporting actress, but something still felt like it was missing. “Because I grew up around Hollywood, I was never very impressed with it. I never bought into it as significant or important.”

Steve Starr/Corbis/Getty

Early fame felt crushing. She was depressed and, at points, suicidal, she says. The height of her career arrived as her mother was dying of cancer. Bertrand had taught her to throw on a backpack and head off on adventures, Jolie says, and this became a coping mechanism. “I wanted to escape,” she says.

Jolie made field visits to refugee camps in Cambodia, Tanzania, Sierra Leone and Pakistan. She officially started her work with the United Nations the year after she won her Oscar. In 2002, she adopted her oldest son, Maddox, from an orphanage in Cambodia, a country she first visited when filming “Lara Croft: Tomb Raider.”

Jolie at a refugee camp on the Thai-Burma border in 2002. Photo: Sukree Sukplang/AFP/Getty

“There’s a reason people who have been through hardship are also much more honest and much more connected, and I am more relaxed with them,” Jolie says. Meanwhile, in L.A., “I don’t really have…a social life,” Jolie says. She says she isn’t currently dating.

Her children have grown up since their days as tabloid fixations, with the oldest out of college and the youngest in high school. Their voices are ones she trusts. “They are the closest people to me and my life, and they’re my close friends,” she says.

This browser does not support the video element.

Jolie on the time her kids wore her old red-carpet dresses

Tap the speaker icon to listen. Video: WSJ. Magazine

This year, after two decades of working with the U.N., Jolie has moved on to partner with refugees in a more direct capacity. In her final speeches for the U.N., she says she has been frustrated with the lack of progress in addressing the root causes of the ongoing global refugee crisis.

Bebeto Matthews/AP

Meanwhile, Jolie is at a career crossroads. The strata under her are shifting: Professionally, she once toggled between major tentpole film franchises, which could guarantee huge box-office returns, and smaller indie dramas. It’s a framework that no longer holds the same certainty.

“Eternals” may have garnered $402 million worldwide, but it was still generally regarded as a disappointment. In this new world, Jolie has been able to take on more varied projects. She’s shooting “Maria,” about the opera singer Maria Callas, and recently finished her fifth directorial effort.

Joel C. Ryan/Invision/AP

Her newest venture is a sustainable-fashion company where the names of tailors and customers may appear on tags alongside that of the brand, Atelier Jolie. “What would be an ethical business? We are trying to reverse-engineer it a little bit,” Jolie says.

This browser does not support the video element.

Jolie on when she knew she wanted to start a fashion business

Tap the speaker icon to listen. Video: WSJ. Magazine

Jolie plans to eventually leave L.A. “It’s part of what happened after my divorce. I lost the ability to live and travel as freely. I will move when I can,” she says, and spend more time at her home in Cambodia.

“I grew up in quite a shallow place. Of all the places in the world, Hollywood is not a healthy place. So you seek authenticity.”

Hair: Diego Da Silva
Makeup: James Kaliardos
Manicure: Eri Handa
Set Design: Stefan Beckman
Furniture: Dienst + Dotter
Production: 360PM
Photo Director: Dana Kien
Produced by Brian Patrick Byrne

 Read more