Life Lessons from Angelina Jolie

Welcome to Life Lessons. This week, in celebration of Angelina Jolie’s first Marvel film Eternals — directed by Chloe Zhao — we’re flipping through the pages of our June 1997 issue, which includes an interview between the actor and her father, the Academy Award-winning actor Jon Voight. The conversation came early in Jolie’s career — a year before her Golden Globe win for Gia, and just a few years prior to her Oscar win for Girl, Interrupted. So sit back and grab a pen—you just might learn a thing or two.

———

“God, my earliest memories are of my brother, Jamie pointing the home video camera at me and saying, ‘C’mon, Ange, give us a show!'”

———

“Neither you or Mom ever said, ‘Be quiet! Stop talking!’ I remember you looking me in the eye and asking, ‘What are you thinking? What are you feeling?’ That’s what I do in my job now—I say, ‘OK, how do I feel about this?’ And I immediately know, because that’s how I grew up.”

———

“I have a certain energy, yeah, and it’s either needed or it’s definitely not needed. I know that I can stick out like a sore thumb, and there are some women I’m not ready to play.”

———

“[Playing God] was very rock-‘n’-roll and fun and loud and say-what-you-want-to-say, dress wild and love wild — you know that fantasy. I really allowed myself to get into that world. Being the age am, I sometimes feel like a punk kid walking onto certain sets, but I didn’t this time. I felt very much a woman.”

———

“As a young woman, there are parts I’ll look at that may not be in the best projects, but I’m starting out in this business and trying to figure out how I can make it work.”

———

“I’m having to do a lot to keep my clothes on and not be cast in girlfriend roles.”

———

“Women have a certain sexuality, and I think their bodies are beautiful and I’m not embarrassed to explore that in a film. But there are roles you get offered that are vulgar and violent—just like there’s a side of me that’s vulgar and violent.”

———

“In the films I’ve done recently, I’ve been learning a little more about the side of myself that enjoys being a light. I remember when I used to dress in all black and you’d say, ‘Just be pretty, hold your head up, be proud. Be a pleasant person and don’t cover yourself so much with all your darkness, your need to be a little crazy.’ Now, I have nothing against anything I’ve been in before, because I love all sides of me, but I have been experimenting more with that lovely woman side.”

———

“I think it’s important, in between projects, for me to sit down with who I’ve just become and allow her to continue to evolve and find a home inside me before I go and become somebody else.”

———

“I think I also need to learn to relax and not prepare too much, just enjoy life. I notice that my characters go out to dinner and have fun and take these great trips, but I spend so much time on their lives, I don’t have much of a personal life of my own. I have to sort of remember to fill out that little notebook on me.”