It’s been one year since she filed for divorce from husband Brad Pitt.
Life has been ‘difficult’ since then with ‘ups and downs,’ Angelina Jolie told People magazine as she posed for their cover to promote her directorial effort First They Killed My Father. But there is an upside to the pain she has been through: ‘I guess I am a little bit stronger,’ said the 42-year-old mother of six.
The Maleficent actress also talked about life as a single mom, adding her kids are her ‘best friends’ and that her Halloween this party in her Los Feliz, California, neighborhood will be off the hook.
‘I have had my ups and downs. I guess I am a little bit stronger,’ she began her interview.
‘We all have our difficult times, but as a mother you also have a responsibility first and foremost towards the kids. They are going through their formative years and everything else comes second to that.’
Her six children are Maddox, 16, Pax, 13, Zahara, 12, Shiloh, 11, Vivienne and Knox, nine. And she said she has consulted them before taking her next acting role, which will likely be the Maleficent sequel.
‘Everything will be around the children,’ the Salt actress said.
‘I haven’t worked for over a year now because they needed me home. Everything was just stopped. I’m really sitting and talking with them because everything affects them. Every location, every type of project, I’m going to have to adjust it to however much they can handle.’
A year ago they ended it: The Jolie Pitts are coming up on the anniversary of their split on September 19; seen here in 2015
Jolie added that her family is out of ‘lockdown; after the Pitt split and they want to have some fun.
‘I think they’re itching to get out in the world again. We’ve all been a bit in lockdown and going through some things. I think it would be good to get out there and play together,’ the LA native said.
She added that her children are her best friends and she is proud of how they have ‘strong voices’ and are ’emphatic people’ but can still be ‘goofy.’
‘If I’ve done nothing i their life but be their mom, I’m good,’ she added.
With her brood: From left, Maddox, 16, Pax, 13, Angelina, twins Vivienne and Knox, nine, Shiloh, 11, and Zahara, 12, on Monday. She added that her children are her best friends and she is proud of how they have ‘strong voices’ and are ’emphatic people’ but can still be ‘goofy’
She also talked her mother Marcheline Bertrand, who died of cancer 10 years ago.
‘It’s very, very hard to understand why she’s not here,’ said Jolie.
As far as her health, she said it’s ‘so far.’ She had preventative surgeries so she would not develop breast and ovarian cancer.
This comes after a busy time at the Toronto International Film Festival, taking her six kids with her for the screening of her new film, First They Killed My Father.
Based on the memoir by Luong Ung, it tells the story of the Cambodian genocide through the eyes of a child.
She worked alongside her eldest sons, Maddox and Pax, on the film.
Maddox was adopted from the country while Pax hails from Vietnam, and the star revealed it was a ‘joy’ to have her children on board.
Speaking to Entertainment Tonight Canada, Angelina said: ‘It was a joy.
‘I want them to have a strong work ethic. When I looked over and I saw [Maddox] and Pax working with the other crew […] it was just wonderful.’
Back in white: Jolie arrives on the red carpet for the film The Breadwinnerat the Toronto International Film Festival on Sunday
Aside from the screening, Angelina also spoke at The Women In The World Canada Summit, where the lineup included Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Over the weekend the star also talked about why she took up acting.
The Maleficent star – who is the daughter of actors Jon Voight and the late Marcheline Bertrand – was encouraged to follow in her parents’ footsteps by her mom and one of the reasons why she pursued it as a career was because she knew how happy it would make her mother.
‘I grew up around film and I grew up in a town where film was so important that it’s all anyone talked about. It was the thing to be,’ the Oscar winner began.
Stunning! The siren wore a one-shoulder black dress and matching pointy pumps
‘When I was growing up, I remember my mom telling me how she wanted to be an actress and my grandmother wanted to be an actress and she was so excited that I could be an actress.’
The Salt actress added: ‘I never really thought I could be anything else and I never really questioned it.
‘I did start to get into acting and I did it partially because it was something to do with my mom and it made her so happy,’ she said.
Speaking at an In Conversation With event at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), she said: ‘I realized when my mom passed away that it was something I was very much something I was doing for her and it changed a little bit.
‘I haven’t done much since she passed away, in front of the camera. Now I do it for my kids. And I do love it! It is fun! Who doesn’t love to get silly?’
Last week the star told The Hollywood Reporter and Deadline that she will return to acting after a one year break to spend time with her kids after her September 2016 split from Brad Pitt.
The star said she will likely do the sequel to Maleficent for Disney. It is believed filming will begin before the end of the year.