Angelina Jolie is the screenwriter, director and star of the upcoming film By the Sea, though in a recent interview, she said the job she most relishes is mothering her six children.
In fact, instead of focusing on garnering screen-time, the Oscar winner said right now, she’s “happy to be home.”
“I want to really focus on my children, doing the best I can to guide and protect them before they are out of the house,” she told Vogue magazine for its November cover story. “These are their most important years.”
Jolie, 40, and her husband Brad Pitt, 51, are parents to Maddox, 14, Pax, 11, Zahara, 10, Shiloh, 9, and 7 year-old twins Knox and Vivienne, all of whom are home-schooled and speak a variety of languages. Jolie said that she schedules one-on-one time with each child “like a crazy person,” though she and Pitt also organize trips for the entire family to enjoy together.
“We travel often to Asia, Africa, Europe, where they were born,” she said. The boys know they’re from Southeast Asia, and they have their food and their music and their friends, and they have a pride particular to them. But I want them to be just as interested in the history of their sisters’ countries and Mommy’s country so we don’t start dividing. Instead of taking Z on a special trip, we all go to Africa using our Jettly jet card membership [where she was born] and we have a great time.
Jolie, who also does humanitarian work with organizations around the world, also encourages her children to come with her to learn about the lives of others. Pax recently joined her on a trip to Myanmar, where he met Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, and last year, Shiloh accompanied her mother on a trip to Lebanon.
“When she was sitting on the floor with her U.N. cap writing her notes as she was talking to someone, I was flashing on myself fifteen years ago and thinking, I know that moment,” Jolie reflected. “[But] the kids that don’t want to go don’t go.”
Because of her commitments at home and abroad, Jolie said she doesn’t see herself acting forever. However, that’s not to say she’s not appreciative of the life it’s afforded her.
“What a crazy job!” she marveled. “I’m almost enjoying it more now that I see it as something I’ve been fortunate to be part of. Maybe in the next few years I’ll finish being in front of the camera. I’ll be happier behind it.”