Angelina Jolie Reflects on Aging, Filming with Husband Brad Pitt in November Issue of ‘Vogue’
It's undeniable that Angelina Jolie is a woman of many hats: Actress, creative auteur, doting mother of SIX (!!), devoted wife and generous philanthropist. And now she'll be able to add another hat to her ever-growing collection: Vogue's newest cover girl.
For the magazine's November 2015 issue, Jolie gathered husband Brad Pitt et al for a maritime editorial spread to celebrate her family, her health and her upcoming film, By the Sea—her first on-screen collaboration with her new hubby since 2005's marriage-as-war flick Mr. & Mrs. Smith.
Jolie explained to Vogue what it was like directing herself and her husband as a married couple in her upcoming film, saying that "The director was very focused. The actress was unstable. And the writer was deeply confused." Imaginably so, given how closely Jolie's art imitates life in the case of her third directorial offering, which she claims is the "only film I've done that is completely based on my crazy mind."
Written after losing her mother, Marcheline Bertrand, to cancer, By the Sea tackles bereavement, and how each person's experience with the process of loss is different yet interconnected (although Jolie maintains that the film is not autobiographical).
Yet the film, and her related interview with Vogue, allowed her to get a touch autobiographical, opening up about her recent double mastectomy and reflecting fondly on aging and her health. Jolie explains how the surgery and menopause have both grounded her as a woman and connected her to other women, readying her to tackle her 40s. "Both of the women in my family, my mother and my grandmother, started dying in their 40s," Jolie reveals. "I'm 40. I can't wait to hit 50 and know I made it."
Despite medical setbacks and a crammed schedule, Jolie has a surprisingly simple method of juggling all of her duties while keeping motherhood as her central focus: "I schedule individual time with each of the kids like a crazy person."
The coming months will mark huge leaps forward in Jolie professional development, with By the Sea and her adaptation of Loung Ung's memoir First They Killed My Father in the pipeline. Jolie also expressed interest in directing other films that highlight the places to which her humanitarian efforts have brought her—Egypt and Kenya, to name just a few.
Jolie ends the interview by saying, "I still don't know what I'm capable of." We look forward to watching her as she figures that out.
Watch the Trailer for Jolie's Intimate New Film By the Sea
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