Unlike some stars, Angelina Jolie doesn't mind tabloid attention. In fact, the star of Universal Pictures' By the Sea tells WSJ. Magazine's Innovators Issue, "You just have to look at whether or not you can still be effective with what you want to do. And if anything gets in the way of that, then you have a problem. But I don't."
That's not to say she enjoys it, either. Long before she made a name for herself in Hollywood, Jolie was accustomed to life in the limelight. The daughter of actors Jon Voight and the late Marcheline Bertrand, Jolie followed in her parents' footsteps when she made her onscreen debut alongside her father in the 1982 comedy Lookin' to Get Out. Though she was a natural, she honed her talents and eventually won an Academy Award and a Golden Globe for her role in 1999's Girl, Interrupted. Still, as her hubby Brad Pitt says, "I'm not sure she ever really enjoyed acting, but was doing it more for her respect for artists and her mother, who loved the art. With writing and directing she has discovered her own joy within it."
In a wide-ranging interview with WSJ. Magazine, the co-stars and co-parents of six children open up about everything from Jolie's biggest parenting concerns to her recent health scares. According to Pitt, Jolie is in many ways more suited to being a mom than a movie star. "When Angie has a day off, the first thing she does is get up and take the kids out. This is the most important 'to do' of the day. No matter how tired she might be, she plans outings for each and all. She has an incredible knack for inventing crazy experiences for them, something new, something fresh," he says. "I may be the bigger goof of the pair, but she invents the stage."
Jolie, however, thinks that they're equally goofy with the kids. "We wake up, we make breakfast. In our domestic life, we're Mom and Dad," she explains. "And often we're dorky Mom and Dad, which the kids find ridiculous."
Of course, it hasn't been all laughs for the Maleficent actress. In 2013 she elected to have a double mastectomy after doctors discovered that she had inherited the BRCA1 gene mutation, which increased her risk for cancer. "I want to make sure my kids are never worried about me. Even if I'm going through something, I make sure they are very aware that I'm totally fine. I'll stop and make a joke. I talk to them," Jolie says. "I never, ever want them to have that secret worry and feel that they have to take care of me." In 2015, Jolie also had her ovaries removed.
Pitt was by his wife's side every step of the way. "I'll tell you this about her surgeries: Once the decision was made, she was on the operating table two weeks later," he says, adding, "You have to understand that this is a woman who never knew she'd make it to 40. This is a woman who had watched her mother, aunt and grandmother become sick and eventually succumb, all at an early age. Her drive, her absolute value in herself, is defined by the impact she can have during her time here—for her kids and for the underprivileged and those suffering."
And that's precisely why Jolie has been able to deal with tabloid attention so easily. When the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees asked her to serve as a goodwill ambassador in 2001, she was initially hesitant. "It was during a time when there was a lot of gossip about me. I told them I didn't think they realized what they'd be bringing upon the agency, that a lot of people didn't see me the same way they did, and I thought it would be a negative," she tells WSJ. Magazine. Jolie has been involved with the UNHCR ever since, and she will continue using her fame to give refugees a platform. "I don't want to speak up just to be on record. I'm not somebody who believes that just to criticize is going to make a difference."
Jolie took a similar approach while directing By the Sea, a marital drama she wrote for herself and Pitt to star in. They play an unhappily married couple, and ironically, began filming it after their own wedding. Jolie admits that it "could have been a disaster" for some couples. "But as soon as we got home, it was bedtime stories, children's needs and problems, the fights they'd had during the day. We had to immediately snap back to something that was uniting and positive and loving."
(E! and Universal Pictures are both members of the NBCUniversal family.)