Angelina Jolie Explains Her Years-Long Break From Acting

Angelina Jolie stepped into the spotlight 30 years ago, and a spin through her resume shows that she’s worked non-stop ever since. That is, until 2021, when she joined the Marvel universe with a role in the ensemble cast of Chloé Zhao-directed superhero film Eternals. The collaboration between the Oscar winners (Zhao for Nomadland in 2021, Jolie for Girl, Interrupted in 2000) wasn’t a success, but that’s not the reason for her lengthy (for her) break from the business. Instead, she tells The Hollywood Reporter that her family’s needs superseded Hollywood’s.

She returned to the screen at the Venice Film Festival this week, hitting the red carpet in support of Maria, director Pablo Larraín’s portrait of iconic opera singer Maria Callas. Jolie is prepared for the public to blur the line between the role and the actor. “I’m sure there’s a lot that will be read into it of our overlaps as women,” she says. “There was a pressure behind the working that wasn’t just the joy of the work.”

For those of us who toil in obscurity, it’s likely odd to hear someone like Angelina Jolie make that common person’s claim. According to the actor, however, “I was an artist early to just help my mom pay bills,” a decision that meant “I’ve had times where I felt very, very far away from being comfortable in the business.”

That practical start to her career is, perhaps, why it was so easy to step away for a bit. When asked why she has “waited so long since you last acted or directed?” The mother of six responded simply, saying, “I needed to be home more with my kids.”

It’s hard not to wonder, at that point, if a factor here is her lengthy divorce battle with Brad Pitt, whom she accused of assault during a now-notorious family plane trip in 2016. (Pitt has denied her claims.) Now headed into its eighth year, Jolie was tight-lipped when asked about the proceedings. In fact, she wouldn’t even entertain the question: when interviewer Rebecca Keegan asked, “May I ask what the status of your divorce is?” Jolie evenly responded, “No.”

It was a restrained response from someone who admits she doesn’t always feel restraint. “For better or for worse, I’m a very deeply feeling person and kind of a raw nerve,” she says, traits that have sometimes gotten her in trouble. “When we make decisions when we are in fear or being pressured, we take a very different path. And it can be very destructive,” she says.

And now Jolie feels ready to get back into the game, as her kids are now “a bit older, getting more independent. I’m less needed and so able to go away for different periods of time.” Her eldest, son Maddox Chivan Jolie-Pitt, is 23; her youngest, twins Vivienne Marcheline Jolie and Knox Léon Jolie-Pitt are 16.

“It’s a new season in our lives,” Jolie says of the brood, some of whom have made the necessary legal moves to change their last names to remove mention of their father. “I’m very excited for them to be coming into their own more and more every day.”

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