My chances of developing breast cancer have dropped from 87 percent to under 5 percent. I can tell my children that they don't need to fear they will lose me to breast cancer.
— Angelina Jolie
My mother fought cancer for almost a decade and died at 56. She held out long enough to meet the first of her grandchildren and to hold them in her arms. But my other children will never have the chance to know her and experience how loving and gracious she was.
I'm in a rare position where I don't have to do job after job. I can take time when my family needs it.
If there is even one woman out there who went and got checked and found that she had cancer or she was positive and she caught something in time, and if in any small way I was a part of that, it makes me very emotional.
I want to support other women because of the opportunities I've had - and I've had a lot of opportunities. What I try as a female director is to do the best job I can and, in the meantime, bring attention to as many other female directors and writers as I can.
There are certain things that bother me and certain things that don't. Personal attacks on me? I think I'm just so used to it.
I imagine I will spend my days traveling from country to country to visit our children, who I expect will live around the world.
For me, there have been times when an action movie, even a 'Tomb Raider,' has helped me get out of myself and be physical again. It's like therapy.
I like to work with artists from around the world. There are so many new inspiring filmmakers.
I prefer directing to acting. There is huge freedom that comes from being behind the camera. It brings a lot of responsibilities as well but is intensely rewarding.
I think that what happens when you lose a parent, where you lose - you drop into a different kind of serious.
I'm doing more of my U.N. work and doing the African Union Summit and things like that.
My mom always wanted me to be an actor. And I started going to theater and going on auditions young.
The 'Maddox Jolie-Pitt' Foundation's work is inspired by our children and their connections to particular countries.
Sometimes I try to just sit at home and do something calmer and simpler and just be in my life. You know, not trying to solve a lot of things at once.
I'd like to think that I'm a calm and sweet person. I tend to be very playful at home with my children, but in life... we have to fight our battles - our work battles, our political battles, our personal battles - and we're focused.
Ever since I dated a woman, I know what it is to grab a curve on a woman's body. Skinny's not fine when the lights are low.
Cancer is still a word that strikes fear into people's hearts, producing a deep sense of powerlessness. But today it is possible to find out through a blood test whether you are highly susceptible to breast and ovarian cancer, and then take action.
I actually feel like women in my position, when we have all at our disposal to help us, shouldn't complain when we consider all of the people who are really struggling and don't have the means or support. Many people are single, raising children. That's hard.
I have much more support than most women around this world, and I have the financial means to have a home and help with care and food.
None of my kids want to be actors. They are actually very interested in being musicians. I think they like the process of film from the outside. Mad is interested in editing. Pax loves music and deejaying.
Sexism is part of every industry and must be addressed. But I try not to focus on the negative but the positive side of what we can bring.
Let's embrace being not normal!
Without Cambodia, I may never have become a mother. Part of my heart is and will always be in this country. And part of this country is always with me: Maddox.
My mom, she was a very, very soft woman. It was hard for her to yell or even curse. But when it came to fighting for her kids, she found a strength she didn't always know she had.
I do believe in the old saying, 'What does not kill you makes you stronger.' Our experiences, good and bad, make us who we are. By overcoming difficulties, we gain strength and maturity.
He knows my limitations and where I'm a good wife and a good mom.
I've played real people before, but I never knew them.
I'm a very private person. I don't go out much. I'm home with kids. I go to work. I don't really like being the focus of attention, which is why I like being behind the camera more.
This has been my life for many years; one role feeds the other.
There are many things I do where the centre of it is... It's almost more my humanitarian work than art.
I feel matured in a way that I'm happy about. I'm at this other stage in my life - and it's not a bad thing at all.
It is really funny when people say you'd be obvious for a great villain.
When you work as a humanitarian, you are conscious that politics have to be considered. Because if you really want to make an extreme change, then you have a responsibility.
I made a decision to have a preventive double mastectomy. I started with the breasts, as my risk of breast cancer is higher than my risk of ovarian cancer, and the surgery is more complex.
When I feel I'm doing too much, I do less if I can.
I probably wouldn't have made it this far if I were a refugee.
All the kids are learning different languages. I asked them what languages they wanted to learn, and Shi is learning Khmai, which is a Cambodian language; Pax is focusing on Vietnamese, Mad has taken to German and Russian, Z is speaking French, Vivienne really wanted to learn Arabic, and Knox is learning sign language.
I don't want people saying, 'Should we get a female director?' I want to hear, 'Should we get a great director for this movie?'
I imagine I will be less involved in film and be focused more on family and foreign affairs.
Just be a cool grandpa who's creative, and hang out and tell stories and read a book in the library.
I wouldn't put myself forward to do a film like 'Changeling' if I thought I couldn't pull people into a story because of all the other ways people see me.
I tend not to look back and dwell on a project once it is finished.
If anything, I get most upset because I wanna read a good paper first thing in the morning. And if I see a lie about myself flash across the front of the cover, I don't think much of the rest of the newspaper.
I think it's very important to cry in the shower and not in front of them. They need to know that everything's going to be all right, even when you're not sure it is.
I grew up with my career being thrust upon me. It took me a long time to believe that I could do more than that one aspect of our business.
It is a joy to be an artist, but it doesn't mean very much unless that work is somehow useful in some way and contributes to others.
That's when it becomes a business. When you've been public a long time, when it's a career. You do certain films, you sell them.
We think it's fun for our kids to have cameos and join us on set, but not to be actors. That's not our goal for Brad and me at all. I think we would both prefer that they didn't become actors.
Men don't really like skinny, do they?
