Magnificent: Mistress of Good
Angelina Jolie’s story is a bit of a roller coaster. She has time and time again encountered moments and people that have transformed her whole entire way of thinking. Moments that have for better or for worse, altered the course of her life.
It all began in 1982, when Jolie landed her first role in Lookin’ to Get Out at just seven years old. It was her father, Jon Voight’s, 14th film. Voight is an established actor and has been in productions since the ‘60s; he’s even won an Oscar for his role in Coming Home (1978). Jolie’s mother, Marcheline Bertrand, was also an actress, although to a lesser known degree. Angelina’s parents split when she was just one-year-old, and growing up, she had a rocky relationship with her father.
Jolie grew up in Los Angeles and attended a regular high school, but she never felt like she fit in with her classmates. She was bullied and often felt out of place amongst the wealthier kids. When she switched to an alternative school, she became a punk kid, wearing all black, going to punk concerts, getting tattoos, and even experimenting with knife play with her then-boyfriend. She struggled with depression and would take drugs and self-harm to heal the pain.
“I grew up in LA, where focus is very inward. I didn’t know why I was so destructive and miserable. I didn’t appreciate or understand my life,” Jolie admitted.
Despite these mental health struggles, Jolie pushed on, focusing on acting. She starred in some music videos by Meat Loaf, The Lemonheads, and The Rolling Stones, and landed her first main role with Hackers (1995). She continued to garner recognition with her 1996 films Foxfire and Mojave Moon. The following year, she acted in a miniseries titled George Wallace, which focused on Alabama governor George Wallace and his life. She won her first Golden Globe for her role in the miniseries, and was even nominated for an Emmy.
Her breakthrough finally came when she portrayed fashion model Gia Carangi in Gia (1998), a TV movie about her life. She won her second Golden Globe for her performance and was nominated again for an Emmy.
As Jolie continued to gain respect in the world of cinema, the tabloids were beginning to take notice of her, too. Her personal life was of great interest due to her mysterious, dark, and seductive demeanor. In 1996, she married actor Jonny Lee Miller; they had met on the set of Hackers. She arrived to their wedding wearing a white T-shirt with Miller’s name written on it in her blood. This would be the first of many of Jolie’s controversial decisions that would draw raised eyebrows. In 1999, she starred in the movie Pushing Tin, alongside actor Billy Bob Thornton. They became close friends, and eventually fell in love, resulting in Jolie’s second marriage in 2000. Their relationship was highly publicized thanks to their intimate PDA and strange traditions. They famously walked red carpets with necklaces containing each other’s dried blood in them.
Also in 1999, Jolie landed one of her most iconic roles as Lisa in Girl, Interrupted. Two years later, she starred in another one of her most famous pictures, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. It would change her life forever, in more ways than one. It was very successful, launching her into international superstar status, but it also affected her because of where it was filmed. In 2000, Tomb Raider was shot on set in Cambodia. While there, she bought a book that was being sold on the side of the road, First They Killed My Father, a memoir by Cambodian woman Loung Ung about the bloody Khmer Rouge regime in her country. Jolie was so moved by the memoir and the Cambodian people that she contacted the United Nations and became a goodwill ambassador for the High Commissioner for Refugees. On one of her first missions, she met Ung, and they developed a friendship that is still going strong today.
In 2002, Jolie adopted her first child, Maddox, from Battambang, Cambodia. Then, in 2003, she bought a house in Cambodia, and even became a citizen. She started a foundation, now called the Maddox Jolie-Pitt Foundation, which aimed to better Cambodia’s environmental conservation, health, education, and infrastructure. She proceeded to dedicate her life to embarking on U.N. missions to help people in struggling countries. She’s since far been on more than 60 missions in countries like Afghanistan, Haiti, and Iraq.
“Once you get exposed to what’s really happening in the world, and other people’s realities, you just can’t ever not know, and you can’t ever wake up and pretend it’s not happening,” she said, “Your entire life shifts.”
Despite being incredibly busy with her humanitarian work and her son, Jolie sustained her acting career. In 2005, she had yet another life changing movie role: Mr. & Mrs. Smith. In this classic action picture about two married assassins, she starred alongside Brad Pitt, who was married to Jennifer Aniston at the time. As the tale goes, Jolie and Pitt experienced incredible chemistry on set, and took a liking to each other. It wasn’t long after the film wrapped that Pitt and Aniston announced their separation, sparking rumors that Jolie had caused their split. Jolie and Pitt got together speedily afterwards, and even adopted a daughter, Zahara, together in Ethiopia in July of 2005. By January of 2006, Jolie and Pitt had announced that they were expecting their first child together, Shiloh. The couple became one of the most adored of the time; coined “Brangelina,” the media covered them extensively for years.
Fast forward to present day and it seems as if Angelina is entering yet another stage in her roller coaster of a life. Pitt and Jolie divorced in 2016, after only two years of marriage, but more than 10 years of dating. With six children together (three adopted and three biological), the split hasn’t been easy, but Jolie claims she’s trying to make it work.
“We’re all just healing from the events that led to the filing . . . [My children are] not healing from divorce. They’re healing from some…from life, from things in life,” Jolie shares.
It’s certainly been a significant, and at times difficult, turning point, but like always, Jolie remains resilient and poised. She has continued to act, and even direct, with her most recent highlight being First They Killed My Father (2017), the screen adaptation of the earlier mentioned memoir by Ung. She returned to Cambodia to shoot the production, involving over 3,500 local peoples in it. She hired a Cambodian filmmaker, Rithy Panh, to lead the project and had her son, Maddox, as an executive producer on set. Ung was also greatly involved, making it an authentic, emotional tribute to the country and its traumatic past. It was nominated for a Golden Globe and was critically well-received.
Her newest movie, Maleficent: Mistress of Evil is coming out this month, on the 18th, which marks her return to acting after a three-year hiatus. Her last, Kung Fu Panda 3, came out in 2016. She’s definitely back on track as she’s set to star in The One and Only Ivan and Come Away in 2020. Not stopping there, she’s also said to be working on two films without release dates yet, Eternals, and Those Who Wish Me Dead.
Angelina Jolie has come a long way since her daredevil, punk days. She’s now so much more than what the media has painted her as. Yes, she is still a badass and a sex symbol and an action queen. But she is also a wonderful mother, a graceful human being, and a selfless humanitarian who has found joy in helping those less fortunate. It’s safe to say that Jolie is prepared for whatever life throws at her next.
By Selene Rivera