In a revealing new interview with The Guardian, Angelina Jolie discusses her ongoing campaign for human rights, which she began as a goodwill ambassador and is now a special envoy for the UN high commissioner for refugees. But while Jolie has publicly fought for human rights and the rights of children, she has been fighting her own battle in her personal life.
Jolie’s acrimonious divorce from actor Brad Pitt has made international headlines after Pitt was investigated for alleged child abuse from an incident with their children aboard a private plane. Pitt wasn’t charged, and the allegations did little to damage his career: he even took home an Oscar last year.
Jolie was cagey about the details of her divorce from Pitt, likely because their custody battle is still ongoing. “Often you cannot recognise something in a personal way, especially if your focus is on the greatest global injustices, because everything else seems smaller. It’s so hard. I’d like to be able to have this discussion and it’s so important…” she said, adding “I’m not the kind of person who makes decisions like the decisions I had to make lightly. It took a lot for me to be in a position where I felt I had to separate from the father of my children.”
The article continues:
“What happened that made her fear for her children’s rights. “I… I’m still in my own legal situation,” she stammers. “I can’t speak about that.” Look, I say, there has been so much nonsense written about you over the years, it’s impossible to distinguish between truth and fiction – you have to help me understand what you are alluding to. Are you talking about your divorce from Brad Pitt and the allegations you have made against him of domestic abuse? She tells me she is sworn to silence. Well, nod if you’re talking about the divorce and allegations. She nods. And did she fear for the safety of her children? This time she answers. “Yes, for my family. My whole family.”
Jolie also discussed a traumatic experience she had as a young actor with convicted rapist Harvey Weinstein. Jolie starred in the 1998 Miramax romantic drama Playing by Heart when she was just 21 when she first encountered Weinstein. “If you get yourself out of the room, you think he attempted but didn’t, right? The truth is that the attempt and the experience of the attempt is an assault,” she described.
She described it as an “abuse of rights”, saying “It was beyond a pass, it was something I had to escape. I stayed away and warned people about him. I remember telling Jonny [Lee Miller], my first husband, who was great about it, to spread the word to other guys – don’t let girls go alone with him. I was asked to do The Aviator, but I said no because he was involved. I never associated or worked with him again. It was hard for me when Brad did.”
Pitt earned credit as “one of the good guys” after stories surfaced about him defending then-girlfriend Gwyneth Paltrow after she was harassed by Weinstein. In an appearance on “The Howard Stern Show” in May 2018, Paltrow revealed that Pitt told Weinstein, “If you ever make her feel uncomfortable again, I’ll kill you.” Paltrow added, “It was so fantastic because what he did was, he leveraged his fame and power to protect me at a time when I didn’t have fame or power yet. He’s the best.”
Yet despite defending Paltrow, Pitt continued to work with Weinstein in 2009’s Inglourious Basterds and 2012’s Killing Them Softly.
“We fought about it. Of course it hurt,” Jolie said about Pitt working with the man who attacked her. It’s especially shocking that Pitt would continue to work with Weinstein given that he doesn’t have to. Brad Pitt is an A-list movie star who could make any project he wanted with any studio in the world. He has a level of access that few others do, yet he deliberately chose to work with Weinstein.
The interview is well worth reading in its entirety, as Jolie discusses her activism, her mother, and her relationship with her children.
And while we’re on the subject of interviews, I would love to read a celebrity profile that doesn’t begin with a lascivious description of a woman. This article features discussions of abuse and trauma, so maybe it doesn’t have to lead with “Her features are cartoonishly beautiful – straight black hair, vertiginous cheekbones, huge blue eyes and lips like a plumped red sofa.”
(via The Guardian, image: Christopher Polk/Getty Images for The Critics’ Choice Awards)
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