At forty, Angelina Jolie is going strong. Photographer Annie Leibovitz recently got up close and personal with the Jolie-Pitt family for a beachside editorial to celebrate the release of Jolie’s latest film, By the Sea.
Jolie wrote the script for By the Sea eight years ago, shortly after the death of her mother. She and Brad Pitt referred to the script as “the crazy one.” But this year they got fearless and produced the film on their honeymoon, playing a couple in the 1970s who are trying to reconnect as they navigate grief and loss. They shot the film in Malta and it premiered on November 13. Universal Pictures’ Chairman Donna Langely described it as “a gem of a film.” Jolie took the helm as writer, director and actress.
Annie Leibovitz photographed the family in an editorial that glows with spontaneity, carefree smiles and picturesque scenery. All six children ran playfully on the beach and posed with their parents. And in the candid spirit of the shoot, Jolie spoke openly with Vogue about her thoughts on the film, her family, and being forty. She told Vogue:
“It’s not autobiographical. Brad and I have our issues but if the characters’ were even remotely close to our problems then we couldn’t have made the film… This is the only film I’ve done that is completely based on my own crazy mind.”
The seaside editorial shoot features her children, whom she discussed proudly.
“We travel often to Asia, Africa, and Europe, where they were born. 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 and we have a great time.”
She recently took Pax to Cambodia and Myanmar, where her next film is in the works. He was ecstatic to meet Nobel laureate and Burmese heroine Aung San Suu Kyi. Jolie said about the meeting:
“He rightfully doesn’t get nervous going to a movie premiere; he gets nervous going to meet her.”
Jolie is just entering the decade that both her mother and grandmother were in when they got sick. After being told that she had elevated inflammatory markers, Jolie made the decision to get her ovaries and fallopian tubes removed. She said about her menopause:
“I feel grounded as a woman. I know others do too. Both of the women in my family, my mother and my grandmother started dying in their forties. I’m forty. I can’t wait to hit fifty and know I made it.”
With dazzling success, a beautiful family, and more films underway, we know it’s going to be great decade.
