Angelina Jolie Says Acting Became 'Harder' After Her Mom's Death: 'I Realized How Much of It Was for Her'

Mar. 15, 2025

Angelina Jolie.Photo:ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty

ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty

Angelina Jolieis opening up about how her late mother encouraged her to become an actress — and how her death made continuing her career even harder.

In a new interview withWmagazinepublished on Jan. 3, theMariastar, 49, spoke candidly about how her late mom,Marcheline Bertrand, encouraged her to go into acting as a child.

Angelina Jolie and mother Marcheline Bertrand.

“She loved being being a stay-at-home mom, but she really wanted me to be an actress so I don’t remember making the choice to be an actress. I remembered it made my mom happy,” Jolie added.

For the star, acting served as a way to help her mother pay the bills during her childhood, as Bertrand served as her manager.

“We were a team,” Jolie recalled toW. “I always wanted to buy her a house and things like that — it kind of started that way.”

The actress and her mom remained close throughout the rest of Bertrand’s life. She was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 1999, and was also later diagnosed with breast cancer. She died on Jan. 27, 2007, at the age of 56.

“When my mom passed, I think it it was harder for me to be an actress for while,” the star toldW. “I realized how much it was for her.”

Angelina Jolie and her mother Marcheline Bertrand.Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection/Getty

Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection/Getty

“When [my mother] passed, I realized that somebody who lives life with that kind of dedication to their family is the most noble," she said. “In her passing, she reminded me what matters. And what’s most fun — to put yourself aside for these other little people you’re raising.”

Just last month, while accepting the Performer Tribute at theGotham Awards, Jolie reflected on how her mother’s dedication to theater and literature also shaped her career, inspiring both her and Haven, 51.

“I grew up with a mother who kept books inside the oven because there were more books in our house than shelves in the apartment we had,” Jolie told the audience. “It was how she solved the problem, while still making sure we were fed. But it was her priority.”

Angelina Jolie as Maria Callas in ‘Maria’.Pablo Larraín/Netflix © 2024

Pablo Larraín/Netflix © 2024

Elsewhere in her conversation withW, Jolie spoke aboutMaria,in which she stars as the renowned opera singer Maria Callas, and shared that she enjoys playing characters based on real people.

“The more I learned about Maria, the more I felt she deserved empathy and understanding,” she told the magazine. “In those last years of her life, when she was so criticized and so alone, my goal was for the audience to please give her life a second look. Give her one more moment.”

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Mariais in theaters now and is available to stream on Netflix.

source: people.com