Angelina Jolie is not about to give into her health scares any time soon.
The 40-year-old actress covers the November issue of Vogue magazine—the issue in which her six children also make their debut—looking stunning (as always) in a black and white knit sweater, wrapping her arms around herself and smirking toward the camera with a powerful gaze.
Powerful. That's one word to describe Angelina—a characteristic driven from her astonishing strength that we've seen carry her through life's obstacles over the last several years.
After having her ovaries and Fallopian tubes removed, she detailed her experience in a moving New York Times Op-Ed, keeping her promise to readers to update them following a double-mastectomy two years prior.
The bold decision to go public with her health updates, she says, "Really connected me to other women. I wish my mom had been able to make those choices."
The procedures themselves were "brutal," she admits. "It's hard. They are not easy surgeries. The ovaries are an easy surgery, but the hormone changes"—she laughs, nods her head—"interesting. We did joke that I had my Monday edit. Tuesday surgery. Wednesday go into menopause. Thursday come back to edit, a little funky with my steps."
However, the emotional and physical roller coaster of the procedures have been worth it, and despite once famously saying that she has a ticking clock in her head, she can't wait to keep fighting and to keep living like every day might be her last.
Now, having gone through menopause, she says, "I feel grounded as a woman. I know others do too. Both of the women in my family, my mother and my grandmother"—who also succumbed to ovarian cancer—"started dying in their 40s. I'm 40. I can't wait to hit 50 and know I made it."
Meanwhile, she's kept her mind off of her health scares by staying busy writing, directing and acting in a new project that hits close to home: her upcoming movie By the Sea with hubby Brad Pitt.
While some have questioned whether or not their relationship in the film will relate to what really happens behind closed doors, Angelina assures viewers, "This is the only film I've done that is completely based on my own crazy mind."
She adds, "Brad and I have our issues. But if the characters were even remotely close to our problems, we couldn't have made the film."
While she admits it's challenging to step out of their at-home relationship and into one that's entirely different on-screen, it's worth it.
For years, she and Brad called the script "'the crazy one.' We even called it 'the worst idea.' " She laughs and covers her face with her hands. "[But] As artists we wanted something that took us out of our comfort zones. Just being raw actors."
She adds, "It's not the safest idea. But life is short."
Chills.
The November issue of Vogue is on newsstands Wednesday.
For more on Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt's beautiful and intimate family portraits in the new issue of Vogue, tune in to E! News tonight t 7 and 11 on E!
(E! and Universal Pictures are both members of the NBCUniversal family.)