Angelina Jolie Talked About The “Societal Limits” That Have Held Her Back. Hint: They Are Named Brad Pitt
Angelina Jolie is on the cover of the December issue of Harper’s Bazaar (poor November, are we just going to keep pretending it doesn’t exist?) and in the accompanying interview, spoke about personal freedoms for women, her wild heart, and why mean old Brad Pitt won’t let her take their kids and go live in a cliff-side monastery in Bhutan or some shit. There were also many passionate One. Word. Sentences.
But first things first, Angie openly admits she’s been exsanguinated. It was probably Brad’s fault, he sucked her dry like the vampire Lestat did to Louis de Pointe du Lac. But thanks to her kids and the never-ending quest to be “as free and open as your spirit desires”, she finally feels the blood returning to her body. In part, perhaps, because she stopped wearing the skin tight PCV pants she loved in her early 20s. But she’ll never be truly free until her kids turn 18 and she’ll no longer be forced to live under the weight of the invisible yoke (a matched set with her “invisible scars” no doubt) put upon her by her children’s father (that’s Brad, in case you missed it).
Angie spoke at length, with admirable thought and conviction, about the relative freedoms she is afforded in pursuing her passions and interests, in comparison to the myriad restrictions millions of other women throughout the world face. But even Angie has her own personal glass ceiling.
You talk about wanting to encourage your children to explore the world, including the world of ideas and expression. Can you give a specific example of a time when you and your family personally butted up against these kinds of unspoken societal limits?
AJ: I would love to live abroad and will do so as soon as my children are 18. Right now I’m having to base where their father chooses to live.
When Angie does finally get her passport back from Brad, she probably won’t be going back to live in Cambodia. She’s let the chipmunks and snakes take over her house there. No Angie’s got to go to the only place she’s interested in, which anyplace she hasn’t been.
You have traveled the world as both an actor and a United Nations special envoy. What is your favorite place?
AJ: My favorite place is somewhere I’ve never been. I like to be dropped into the middle of something new. I enjoy being out of my element. I want the children to grow up in the world—not just learning about it but living it and having friends around the world. Next year we break ground on a home in Africa.
But…but… but… who is “we“? I thought the children’s father won’t allow them out of the basement, if single dads even have basements in their shabby American apartments!
Angie offered some final words of advice for “the searching ones, longing to be free.”
Find your oxygen, your originality, your own voice. Live more fully. Rebel. Resist. Question. Be curious. Explore.
And whatever you do, DON’T marry some basic from Missouri.
Pic: Harper’s Bazaar via Instagram