It's no surprise that Angelina Jolie is busy, as she balances parenting six growing kids with her career as an actor and filmmaker, along with her humanitarian work on top of all that. But as her children are gradually getting to the age where they leave home, the actress is opening up about her empty nester plans.
Angelina doesn't plan on staying in Los Angeles, where she lives with her kids, for longer than necessary, according to her interview with The Hollywood Reporter.
"I am here because I have to be here from a divorce, but as soon as they’re 18, I’ll be able to leave" she said, referring to her long divorce process from Brad Pitt, who she separated from in 2016.
"When you have a big family, you want them to have privacy, peace, safety. I have a house now to raise my children, but sometimes this place can be … that humanity that I found across the world is not what I grew up with here," she said, explaining her reasoning for wanting to leave the Californian city.
She concluded: "[After Los Angeles,] I’ll spend a lot of time in Cambodia. I’ll spend time visiting my family members wherever they may be in the world."
Already, Maddox, Pax and Zahara have grown up and spread their wings, with the latter attending Spelman College. Shiloh just turned 18, while Vivienne and Knox celebrated their Sweet Sixteens over the summer.
Certainly, her kids have got a taste for international travel as Maddox graduated from university in South Korea in 2023. For Angelina, traveling is second nature as she previously was an ambassador for the UNHCR. But as a parent, she made sacrifices to be around her family — including filming less.
Her starring role as Maria Callas in the eponymous Maria is Angelina's first role in three years since Eternals. She said of her decision to step back from the camera: "I needed to be home more with my kids."
Her decision to return to the screen, she said, was equally driven by her family, as: "They’re a bit older, getting more independent. I’m less needed and so able to go away for different periods of time. And they’re old enough to join me at work. It’s a new season in our lives. I’m very excited for them to be coming into their own more and more every day."
Her sons Maddox and Pax worked behind the scenes of Maria as Assistant Directors, which she said brought a new dynamic to the set.
"It really meant a lot that my boys were with me on Maria," she said. "When I would have really heavy times, they would come over and just give me a hug or a cup of tea."
She continued that she wasn't used to acting and "expressing that much pain" in front of her children, which made things more intense.
"You really try to hide from your children how much pain and sadness you carry. And so for them to be with you when you’re expressing it at such a level, I think it was the first time they ever heard me cry like that. That’s usually for the shower."