Angelina Jolie Embraces Feeling ‘Like an Older Woman’ at 49

Angelina Jolie has recently shared insights into how her outlook on life has evolved with age. The 49-year-old Hollywood star garnered significant attention with an eight-minute standing ovation for her portrayal of Maria Callas in Pablo Larraín’s biopic of the opera singer’s life. While promoting the film at the 2024 Telluride Film Festival, Jolie opened up to IndieWire about how her relationship with music, especially opera, has shifted over the years.

“I’m 49. I do feel like an older woman now, and I embrace that,” Jolie said on September 2. “When I was younger, there were certain pieces of music and certain sounds that matched what I was feeling: I was falling in love, or I was curious about this, or whatever I was going through.”

The Maleficent actor expressed similar sentiments at the Venice Film Festival on August 29, sharing how her musical preferences have developed with age. “I was more punk. I loved all music, but I probably listened to The Clash more than most, and as I’ve gotten older, classical music, opera,” she revealed. “I think there’s something I still love about the same music I did when I was younger. I’ll still listen to The Clash.”

Thoughts of aging seem to be particularly poignant for Jolie as her youngest children approach adulthood. She shares 16-year-old twins Vivienne and Knox with ex-husband Brad Pitt, along with sons Maddox, 23, and Pax, 20, and daughters Zahara, 19, and Shiloh, 18. The former couple is embroiled in a contentious divorce battle involving child custody and disputes over various properties.

Despite her roots in Los Angeles, Jolie has plans to leave Hollywood once her divorce and her twins’ coming of age are finalized. “I have to be here from a divorce,” she explained to The Hollywood Reporter on August 30. “But as soon as they’re 18, I’ll be able to leave.”

Jolie disclosed that she plans to spend considerable time in Cambodia, where she adopted her son Maddox in 2002. “I’ll spend a lot of time in Cambodia,” she said. “I’ll spend time visiting my family members wherever they may be in the world.”

She continued: “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.”

Jolie filed for divorce from Pitt in September 2016 after two years of marriage and 12 years together. Much has been speculated about the Fight Club star’s alleged estrangement from his children, prompted by Jolie’s allegations of abuse in a 2022 cross-complaint against Pitt. Representatives for Pitt have vehemently denied these accusations, calling them “completely untrue.”

In May, People reported that Vivienne was listed as Vivienne Jolie, rather than her hyphenated surname Jolie-Pitt, in the Playbill program for The Outsiders on Broadway, where she served as a producer’s assistant. That same month, Shiloh filed to legally drop her father’s last name upon turning 18. The change was officially granted in August, allowing her to be known as Shiloh Jolie.

Similarly, a viral video previously revealed Zahara being introduced by her university’s sorority as Zahara Marley Jolie, excluding her father’s last name as well.

Source: IndieWire, The Hollywood Reporter, People