Angelina Jolie has shared that she intentionally began taking on fewer roles in films in recent years.
In her recent Vogue cover story about her new fashion house Atelier Jolie, the Oscar-winning actress opened up about her current phase in life and how she’s “still understanding who I am at 48.”
“I guess I’m in transition as a person,” she said. “I feel a bit down these days. I don’t feel like I’ve been myself for a decade, in a way, which I don’t want to get into.”
As Jolie works to figure out what’s most important to her and where she wants to focus her energy, she said Atelier Jolie has played a huge part. Especially since she revealed that she made the decision to start working on fewer movies about seven years ago and “only taking jobs that didn’t require long shoots.”
She added, “We had a lot of healing to do. We’re still finding our footing.”
Though Jolie didn’t share many details on her reason for limiting what acting roles she accepts, she seems to be searching for other creative outlets such as with her fashion brand, where she hopes to create a sense of community.
“I think part of this has also been therapeutic for me — to work in a creative space with people you trust and to rediscover yourself,” she explained. “I’m hoping to change many aspects of my life. And this is the forward-facing one.”
Since the early ’90s, Jolie has been a force throughout Hollywood, scoring an Academy Award in 2000 for Girl, Interrupted. She has starred in dozens of other hit films such as Changeling, Maleficent, Salt and Mr. & Mrs. Smith before her most recent appearance on the big screen in Marvel’s 2021 movie Eternals.
Apart from films and Atelier Jolie, the actress announced last month that she had also boarded the upcoming Broadway musical adaptation of the S.E. Hinton classic The Outsiders as a lead producer.
Last year, she also made another big change in her life by leaving her role as special envoy with the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, after 20 years of campaigning in support of forcibly displaced people around the world. At the time, she said in a joint statement with the UNHCR, “I feel it is time for me to work differently, engaging directly with refugees and local organizations, and supporting their advocacy for solutions.”
