Crave Online: You’re such a strong willed woman. How could you relate to this token wife who just sits there drinking?
Angelina Jolie: So much of that film for me was a study in that kind of restraint because I live in a time, we all do, where as a woman, I can say, “I’m leaving, I’m getting a divorce, you tell me what’s going on” or even speaking in a manner that’s muchharsher without it being the ugliest thing in the world. And she had to maintain a certain kind of composure, quiet decency, just settle into that life. It was that time and the CIA, the idea of getting out was just impossible as a woman. So it was very hard because everything instinctually in me was [the opposite].
Crave: We don’t understand why the guy doesn’t want to be home with you. How hard was it for you to play rejected and unloved?
Angelina: Well, I do have two divorces behind me. [laughs] But I’m still good friends with them, so it’s still okay. But I think it’s actually easier to play that kind of stuff when you do have a balanced home. Because I think if I did have alcoholism in my personal life or my mother or somebody close to me, if I did have that experience, it might have been much more uncomfortable to get in there. And that kind of relationship with a man, I’ve never had that in my life, because I’ve always married artists, so they’re always a very talkative and expressive bunch. So, no, it was just bizarre, but it was part of the character which was interesting, because she did feel lost and she did feel trapped and confused, and so I did as well.
Crave: Do you think some kind of deception is a necessary evil in any relationship?
Angelina: No, I think quite the opposite is the only thing that works. I don’t want to spend my life having to pretend to be somebody else. And I don’t want the person next to me to have to pretend, ever. We have a long life ahead of us. So you want to just be able to be who you are in every moment, and that’s the only way you’ll ever be truly happy anyway.
Crave: How did you like seeing yourself aged in the film, and how will you age gracefully?
Angelina: My mom is aging gracefully, so if I’m anything like my mother. She’s lovely. I love age on a face. I know in this business, there’s not a lot of leverage for the way people have an opinion about how people should look, but I personally love it, and I love to age in movies. I love to see my face old in different ways and I actually feel there’s something very earned so many different things and be rooted in so many different ways that it seems there’s kind of a comfort to it. But Clover was a little different because I hopefully will not break apart as she did, because she had these big yellow contacts and yellow teeth. You may not have noticed it, but I had the alcohol age if you look closely with her. There are a lot of broken capillaries and a lot of yellow. That wasn’t looking in the mirror and saying, “I’ll look like this.” This is what I will look like if I start drinking.
Crave: Could you do any research on CIA wives?
Angelina: I didn’t because most of the people they could all talk to were really the men in the CIA. And the women like Clover were kind of absent or had been quieted or moved to Arizona. One of them did actually. That’s actually a true story, somebody’s living there now. She’s loosely based on a few people, but it was almost impossible to talk to the women, and I think that the reality is that the women knew so little. There would be very little to talk about. My choice was almost to really talk to nobody, really understand nothing and be trapped in this world where sometimes De Niro’s character would come in and I hadn’t focused on exactly who he was in the script and exactly what he did, and I didn’t do my research, so he walked in and I wasn’t really sure who he was. And that was kind of how I just stayed in the dark.
Crave: Have you ever encountered the CIA in your humanitarian activities?
Angelina: That’s such a huge question. I think that I’ve never been clearly aware of something specific, but I think certainly I have witnessed our foreign policy and witnessed the change in the perception of America’s foreign policy in the last few years. Every trip I take the feel has been different because of the changes we have made. And I’m sure the CIA has had a hand in that.
Crave: What changes?
Angelina: To be completely honest, I think about 5 years ago when I started traveling and I’d say I was American, everyone was very, very excited and thought it was the greatest thing in the world and the greatest place in the world. And now there’s a certain… you feel cautious, you feel that people are a bit not so joyful about that. They’re questioning my country you know, where people say things like, “It’s extraordinary you’re here because you’re American,” and that’s not true to the American people. The American people are very caring, generous people. That’s been proven with the work every individual householdhas done abroad and the charity they do and who we are as a people. But it’s not what our government has represented in the last few years, I think. So it’s been difficult to go to places abroad and just see… I think we all know exactly what I’m saying.
Crave: Has your social activism made you want to do more serious movies?
Angelina: No, I think it’s important to just have fun and not take everything so seriously, because I think there’s a big room forentertainment in this world. That’s most of the movies I go to with my kids. That’s part of what we do. I’m not a politician. I amjust an actor, and just supposed to entertain and tell stories, so I remember that. But certainly when a film project comes along like this one, or like Mighty Heart, the Mariane Pearl Story, they are ones that take a priority in my life and are ones that I enjoy more in a different way and are a very different experience. But I think the thing right now that makes the big choice is kind of how long is it shooting. I don’t think I’ve shot more than seven weeks on a movie in two years. I need to make sure I have time with my kids.
Crave: Would you work with Brad again?
Angelina: Who’s going watch the children?
Crave: What new projects would you like to initiate?
Angelina: There are many different things. I will continue to work with refugees, and I will never shift focus from them because I think it’s important, and it is where my heart lies. Cambodia, we just went back there and it’s changed so much over the years. It is now Millenium Village that Brad and I are supporting. It’s also a 148,000 acres of protected forest, and it’salso many, many villagers, and it’s huge. A huge, huge project, which is not what I intended. But it’s wonderful, and I’m learning a lot. But we’re involved in many things, Brad’s work in New Orleans. We’re just trying to make sure we always stay focused and because our temptation is to just, we hear something that’s going on, and we want to get involved. We’re working together on AIDS orphans and passing some legislation for them on their behalf, because there’s no one actually fighting for them, so we’ve put together a group of people that will do exactly that. For Zahara as well we want to do something in Ethiopia supporting an orphanage there but I think we will figure out something specific, just so Maddox will take over his project, we want her to take over hers. So we have to figure out what that is.
Crave: Does it ever bleed over into your film work?
Angelina: Sometimes it does. I am interested in the art coming out of different countries. I’m starting to learn about different directors. Even Cambodia’s having a big arts splurge now, and they’re having new posters for their movies up, which they never had a few years ago. I’m fascinated by supporting local artists which I’m sure will be little projects that will not make it here any time soon, but we’ll start to get to know their stories. We talked to people in India, Pakistan, their favorite plays, their favorite pieces of literature.
Crave: The media’s always after you. How does it affect your life?
Angelina: I’ve made a point to not let it change the way I live my life, other than I carefully plan my holidays or where we go, or where we stay or things like that, to try and ensure some kind of quality of life that’s private and nice for the kids. But we simply don’t let it effect us. I think the only time it is hard when the kids want to go somewhere and I’ve had so many people offer to take my children to Disneyland or places that I can’t take them, and they don’t understand how upsetting that is. To take my kids trick or treating, things they assume I can’t do. So we plan to find ways to do all of those things. And there are worse problems.
Crave: Can’t you go incognito at Halloween?
Angelina: I have. I was just going to do a mix of odd masks and things. This year we were in India, so we had this really odd celebration in the hotel. We just had candy and costumes sent up from the States, so he had a really big Afro and I had dreadlocks. We were trying to explain to them what it was, but really we just had fun with dress up.
Crave: You do so much, how do you manage everything?
Angelina: I plan a lot, obsessively. I’m very, very lucky. I love the different elements in my life and I love working abroad, and I love being with my kids and I love being with Brad, so this is the life I chose to have and I’d like to add many more children and many more obstacles and many more things.
