Tuesday, 22 May 2007

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Angelina Jolie: I have nothing to hide

Star insists she's an open book

When it comes to her life, Angelina Jolie is an open book.

"There's nothing I have to hide or defend," the actress, 31, tells Ann Curry for an interview scheduled to run Wednesday on both the Today show and Dateline NBC.

"I'm gonna live my life," Jolie continues. "There are gonna be times when people wanna try to attack me and I don't know why, but they will. And that's okay. ... There are other things I'm more concerned about. My kids are healthy. I have a lot I want to do in this world. ...I wanna do a lot of things as a woman, as a mom, and – and that's my focus."

When it comes to herself, "I have always been honest about who I am, and I've always been very outspoken to press," says Jolie. "I think people have heard a lot from me over the years. ...[If] people wanna believe negative things, they will. ... I can't help that.

"At the end of the day," she continues, "I'm gonna be dead one day. And what people say about me is gonna be what I accomplished and what I did in my life and how my children are."

This week, one of Jolie's accomplishments is her role in the new film A Mighty Heart, in which she plays Mariane Pearl, widow of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, who was killed by terrorists in Pakistan in 2002. The film was produced by Jolie's partner, Brad Pitt.

Recalling her first meeting with Pearl, Jolie remembers wondering, "God, how ... is this woman physically dealing with trying to maintain her strength and take care of this baby that's inside of her, working so hard and ... having so much emotional stress?

Jolie says she thought it would be easy play someone she knows, but it "haunted" her.

"The day before we started shooting, I hardly slept and I was in a panic," says Jolie. "I had gotten to know her, and I'd gotten to know their son. And the thought that he would see this one day. It was my responsibility to not just show the world but also show him how much his mother loved his father and how much they loved each other and how they handled this time."

Jolie and Pitt showed the film on Monday at the Cannes Film Festival in France.