Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt

angelina jolie
When Angelina Jolie played Lara Croft, she
not only saved the world, she also found
her conscience. We’re used to – and are
quite cynical about – celebrities doing their two bobs’
worth for charity on some stage once a year. But very
occasional y, you come across a star who is prepared to
A long and serendipitous set of circumstances led to
go much further to do something about the state of the Jolie taking this role. In 2003, Mariane Pearl wrote
world. George Clooney is one, Jolie another. Filming A Mighty Heart: The Brave Life And Death Of My Husband
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider in Cambodia opened her eyes to Daniel Pearl (Virago Press, £7.99), to introduce her son
the poverty, hunger and horror of many people’s daily Adam to the father he would never know. The book was
lives. ‘It was as if somebody slapped me across the face an immediate bestsel er, and was optioned by Brad
and said: “Oh, my God, you sil y young woman from Pitt’s production company.
California! Do you have any idea how dif?cult the world
Meanwhile, Pearl had read a magazine interview in
real y is for many people?”’ she said at the time.
which Jolie talked about being a single mum to her
Tomb Raider’s huge success in 2001 made Jolie an adopted Cambodian son, Maddox. The two of them
international star – and, in doing so, gave her a voice. were in similar situations – single mothers of smal
boys, very much in the public eye – and Pearl was so
moved by Jolie’s responses that she wrote to her
suggesting they get together, and Jolie agreed.
So far, so unusual. But then things became even
stranger. Pitt and Jolie became an item after shooting
Star quality Mr & Mrs Smith together in 2004. Quite quickly, she
became pregnant, and her thoughts turned to tel ing
the story of her friend. The three met in Namibia early
in 2006 when the project was given the green light,
The champion of
with Michael Winterbottom as director, and they soon
moved to India for the shoot.
She’s used it remarkably ever since, roaming the world
unfashionable causes,
Was it dif?cult to get the budget for a ?lm that covers
tirelessly in a campaign to help the dispossessed – such a sensitive issue? She shakes her head. ‘There was
refugees, asylum seekers – and using her own money,
Angelina Jolie tells us how
no sil iness. Michael [Winterbottom] never pronounced,
public pro?le and political clout to try to make the “We’re making a very important ?lm, and it’s going to
world a more connected, just and equal place.
she uses her fame to draw
cost $50 mil ion.” It was much more like: “This movie is
Her new movie, A Mighty Heart, is an example. Jolie going to be made for nothing”, so we al rol ed up our
the world’s attention to
plays Mariane Pearl, the widow of Wall Street Journal sleeves and pul ed together. We stayed under budget,
reporter Daniel Pearl, who was kidnapped by Islamist
humanitarian issues
so there was no pressure about it being expensive. We
extremists in Pakistan in 2002 and beheaded on video, wanted to maintain its integrity, and that’s what we
to worldwide horror and outrage. What was remarkable did.’ With pride, she adds, ‘We didn’t sel our souls
WORDS: JANE PHILLIMORE
was how Mariane, then six months pregnant, rose above to the devil for this one.’
bitterness and hatred and, while cal ing for legal justice,
It’s no surprise, however, that ‘Brangelina’ were
refused to seek revenge – an attitude that resonates mobbed daily during ?lming. She sighs: ‘I’d love to think
with Jolie’s own beliefs.
that [my celebrity] is a help in promoting the causes
Asked to explain, Jolie ponders quietly, then says, I support, but I think sometimes it can be a distraction
‘I’m hoping that everyone who sees the ?lm takes home and undermine how serious they are.’
the message that although there is so much fear and
Wil making the ?lm affect her campaign work?
anger in the world, it’s important people calm down Jolie shrugs and says wryly, ‘We’l see if I get my next
enough to focus on developing some kind of dialogue. visa to Pakistan.’ She pauses, thoughtful y. ‘Watching
We need to ?nd solutions.
the ?lm does make me want to go back there; I do
‘Mariane is such a great example of this kind of miss it. I ?rst went a few weeks before 9/11 – I was
attitude, because even after they’d done that to her
husband, she remained very focused on learning about
the issues and problems of the area. I’m sure she feels
al that you would expect her to feel, but she managed
to rise above it.’
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angelina jolie
Jolie’s own childhood was fractured by her parents’
early divorce. When she was just one, her father Jon
Voight left her actress mother, Marcheline Bertrand
(who died earlier this year from cancer). Jolie felt it
bitterly and has been estranged from Voight for most of
her life. Perhaps as a result of this, she married young,
“We wanted to maintain
? rst to British actor Jonny Lee Mil er, her co-star in
Hackers, when she was 20. The marriage lasted just
the ? lm’s integrity: we didn’t
three years, but she remained on good terms with him
sell our souls to the devil”
after the divorce in 1999. (That same year, she won an
Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in Girl, Interrupted.)
A year later, in 2000, she married her Pushing Tin
with the UN’s High Commissioner for Refugees [Jolie co-star, Bil y Bob Thornton. The union, remarkable for
is a goodwil ambassador], visiting Afghan refugees on the couple’s tattoos and gothic habit of wearing phials
the border. I returned a few years later for fol ow-up of the other’s blood around their necks, ended suddenly
meetings and to assess the situation in the camps, and in 2003. ‘It took me by surprise,’ Jolie has said, ‘and
then Brad and I went together after the earthquake to it’s scary, but I think it can happen when you get
give our support and help with the relief effort. I have involved with someone but don’t know yourself yet.’
a deep love for that part of the world, and I’m saddened Both marriages involved a certain amount of extreme
that it seems to be breaking apart more and more.’
behaviour: ‘The reason I was so lost is because I didn’t
As wel as Pakistan, Jolie has travel ed regularly to have a sense of a place to put my ? ght and my passion.’
other remote, troubled countries – Thailand, Ecuador,
Angola, Chad, Tanzania, Costa Rica – on UN-related
A WOMAN OF SUBSTANCE:
business, each time roughing it with the best of them, Her fight is now focused on humanitarian causes,
while it’s clear her passion is for her family.
(from top) With Mariane Pearl
and her son Adam, plus partner
eating the same food and sleeping in the same basic
Fol owing her adoption of Maddox in 2002,
Brad Pitt; starring
quarters. She’s gained increasing political and lobbying and perhaps in search of stability, she started to build an
as pregnant Mariane
in A Mighty
experience: in 2005, at World Refugee Day, she sat ‘international family’ of children of different nation-
Heart; Jolie’s
alongside Condoleezza Rice. Later that year she publicly alities. In 2005, she adopted Zahara, a six-month-old
diary, which
details her UN
supported the Unaccompanied Alien Child Protection Ethiopian girl; in March 2007, she and Pitt adopted
? eld work; talking
Act in Washington, and attended fundraisers to set up a three-year-old Vietnamese boy she named Pax Thien
to residents of
a UN camp in
a National Centre for Refugee and Immigrant Children Jolie-Pitt. And between those two events, in May 2006,
Pakistan; with
in the US. She’s also made a ? lm with third world their biological daughter, Shiloh, was born in Namibia.
her beloved
mother
economist Dr Jeffrey Sachs about the poverty of Questioned about the dangers of giving birth in a one-
Marcheline,
vil agers in Ethiopia, and wrote Notes From My Travels room hospital in a remote African country, Jolie replies,
who died
earlier this year
(Simon & Schuster, £8.99), a diary of her UN ? eld work.
‘We aren’t completely insane, we looked for places that
T
weren’t rife with malaria and dengue fever…’
here is no doubt that Jolie’s celebrity helped to
Four children under six is a stretch for any couple,
bring these issues into our living rooms but, no matter how wel resourced. You don’t create a family
unusual y, she has gone further, and now funds like that unless you believe it brings al its members
and runs her own humanitarian projects. After adopting something special. But it’s also a huge responsibility.
Maddox, she wanted him to have a link with his heritage, ‘Every day I try to make sure that each of my children
so she decided to buy a stilt-house in 39 hectares of land has enough of my attention to feel equal,’ she has said

in a Cambodian vil age. Since then, she’s bought the in the past. ‘I try to make sure that my relationship with

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surrounding 230 square miles and turned it into a self- the man in my life is solid, and that we’re connected and
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sustaining conservation project with more than 70 enjoying our children and being part of the world.’
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employees, fol owing UN development goals. She’s
Jolie says she gets her strength from being with Pitt
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? nanced roads and a school for the vil agers; factories, and the kids on a daily basis. ‘I’m sure some people’s
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water puri? cation and soil conservation projects; and opinion would be that I shouldn’t go to certain places
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the land is a sanctuary for animals from poachers. In late with my children,’ she states, ‘but that’s not the world
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2006, she launched the Jolie-Pitt Foundation, making that I live in – I don’t want to live in a box. So I wil be
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donations of a reported $1 mil ion each to Global smart, but I wil live a very bold life.’ s
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Action for Children and Médecins Sans Frontières.
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She and Pitt have given huge sums to relief organisations
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in Darfur and Chad. When their daughter Shiloh was
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born, they negotiated $10 mil ion for the ? rst photos of
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the baby, donating the money to various charities.
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