There should, by all rational expectations of human energy and understanding of the contraints of time, be three Angelina Jolies: one to act and direct, one to raise six children, and one to help save the world. Instead, of course, there is just one superhuman Jolie, and that being the case, a long vacation may be in order.
The 36-year old Oscar winner, who just wrapped up post-production on her directorial debut and is getting ready to star in the big-budget remake of the Elizabeth Taylor bomb, "Cleopatra," spoke with the Financial Times about the crazy life that she and partner Brad Pitt lead, detailing her approach to balancing raising an international brood of children and keeping an A-List, creatively fulfilling career going.
"You're drawn to certain roles because they question something about life, or about love, or about freedom. You ask these questions as you grow up: am I strong enough, am I sane enough? Do I understand love, do I understand myself?" she asks rhetorically. "I'm older and I know who I am ... and I'm less interested in the character helping me answer something ... than in being able to answer it for myself, as a woman, as an adult, with my family."
From the sound of it, for Jolie, acting was about answering her own questions, discovering who she is by playing the part of someone else. Now, as she points out, those answers can be found as she travels the world, taking her adopted children to their home countries and doing massive amounts of charity work.
With all those things on her to-do list, though, something has to give.
"As Brad and I get older we're going to do fewer films. I've been working for a long time, he's been working for a long time," she says. "We've had a nice run and don't want to be doing this our whole lives. There are a lot of other things to do."
Of course, Jolie has said that same exact thing a number of times previously; she first mentioned it in 2006, and then again in 2008, in a widespread interview with Italian Vanity Fair.
"The kids are my priority, so it's possible that from now on I will make fewer movies. I may even stop altogether," she said in October 2008. "I no longer have the ambition I had in my 20s."
Since then, she's voiced two "Kung Fu Panda" movies, starred in "Wanted," "Salt," and "The Tourist" and wrote and directed, "In The Land of Blood and Honey."
Only time will tell if this slow down actually happens.
For much more, click over to the Financial Times.