Angelina Jolie is one of the highest paid actresses in the world, but the Oscar winner's main passions are actually outside of the field. In an interview with the Financial Times published Friday, Jolie, 36, opens up about becoming a mom of six has changed her relationship with work.
"I've never not been grateful to be an actor," she says. "But I think when I was younger I needed [acting] more. I was trying to question things in life so you find these characters that help you find things and grow."
Now, she adds, "I'm older and I know who I am… and I'm less interested in the character helping me answer something… than in being able to answer it for myself, as a woman, as an adult, with my family."
Although the Salt star says she has no plans to retire in the near future, she admits: "I don't love [acting] as much as I did]. I love being a mom."
Jolie and her longtime love Brad Pitt have six children together — Maddox, 9, Pax, 7, Zahara, 6, Shiloh, 5, and 3-year-old twins Knox and Vivienne — and the family is famous for their nomadic lifestyle. "Home is wherever we are," she says. But does she ever feel rootless? "Yes, but happily. I'm very bad at staying in one place. I'm also bad at sitting still… There's so much to explore in the world… So I love travel. If you can travel I think it's the best way to raise kids."
Her directorial debut — In the Land of Blood and Honey — is a love story she also wrote, which is set in the Bosnian war. "I prefer [being behind the camera] to acting," she admits. "I think I've learnt something from all of [the directors I've worked with] — even the ones I didn't like… I also learned a lot from Clint Eastwood about how to appreciate the members of the crew, empowering them to do their job."
But Jolie doesn't plan to stay in the business forever. "As Brad and I get older we're going to do fewer films. I've been working for a long time, he's been working for a long time," she says. "We've had a nice run and I don't want to be doing this our whole lives. There are a lot of other things to do."
