INTERVIEWS & ARTICLES
Source: Allure magazine
Title: Wild at heart
Date: November 2004

View 4 pictures from the photoshoot for this article here.

Angelina Jolie talks about her fascination with S&M;, the rumors about Brad Pitt and Colin Farrell, and her most unlikely fantasy yet.

By Kevin Sessums

The mohawked three-year-old comes bounding into the lobby of the Dorchester Hotel in London's Mayfair neighborhood. "Maddoxx home!" Maddox Chivan Jolie announces for all to hear. "Maddox home!" His mother, wearing a pair of two-dollar sandals, a ruffled black tube top, and a bracelet full of tiny bells on her wrist that matches the miniature version on his, is racing to catch up. "Ahn-sha-leena-sho-lee," an Arab lady whispers excitedly to her friends. "Ahn-sha-leena-sho-lee." Maddox, however, shouts another name when he sees her. "Mamma!" he calls. "Mamma!" She scoops him up and kisses him on his neck. His Mohawk shimmies with happiness.

Maddox lived in an orphanage in a Cambodian village when Jolie adopted him during her travels as goodwill ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). She calls him Mad, a nickname that would have suited her at some point as well, considering her own past: an adolescent fascination with collecting knives that led her to self-mutilation; her rumored early drug use and eating disorders; her wedding at 21 to TRAINSPOTTING's Jonny Lee Miller at which she wore a white shirt with his name painted in her blood; an interlude of bisexuality; her second marriage, to Billy Bob Thornton, a relationship that again became hematological when she insisted they exchange lockets of blood; and a fixation on tattoos (she's lost count). Even two of her award-winning performances-as a tragic fashion model in the HBO movia GIA, for which she received a Golden Glode, and as a sly mental patient in GIRL, INTERRUPTED, which brought her the best supporting actress Oscar-have created an image of Jolie as a troubled soul. But becoming a mother has tamed her a bit. In the past, she could look tired, washed out, as if she had stayed up too late partying. Now she has the glow of a person who is exhausted for all the right reasons. It has been an interesting trip, this journey of hers from madness to Mad-ness.

"I'm loving life for the first time," she says, laughing as she settles in with a glass of red wine in the Dorchester's piano bar. She and Mad are perpetually jet-lagged from all the travel between their country estate outside London and their open-air shack on stilts deep in the jungles of Cambodia. Jolie makes a point of taking her son on her trips. They have, in fact, returned only two days earlier from Cambodia, where she successfully helped stop construction of a hudro plant and dam that would have flooded thoousands of villages and destroyed innumerable animals and their habitats. (She has given $ 5 million-"though I'm no bunny hugger"-to start a Cambodian wildlife preserve and donated funds to rebuild a hospital in Sri Lanka. Her philanthropic philosophy: "If you make $ 10 million, you can give away $ 5 million and not miss it.") She and Mad also took a trip to Thailand so she could get yet another tattoo-a giant tiger across her back. All of this pretty much sums up Angelina Jolie's life these days-a socially committed citizen of the world, a kind-hearted cultural rebel, a maternal tigress.

"I'm looking forward to my mid-30's, the 29-year-old continues. "I'm beginning to feel like a woman who understands her life. Well, not just her life. But her days. Don't get me wrong. I've still got a pretty crazy life. But I'm now in control of it. Like everybody else, I went through a period of not knowing what my purpose was and not being useful. A lot of this goes back to the issue of fame. It can poison you if you have success and you're not a successful person."

She lifts her wineglass again, Tattooes on her right forearm is a Tennessee Williams quote: "A Prayer for the Wild at Heart, That Are Kept in Cages. " Does Jolie ever regret the pathological openness she's always had about her past? "I regret nothing," she says. "I don't belive in regret. I have had people come up to me who used to mutilate themselves with knoves-or are cutting themselves-and want to talk about why they are doing it or why they stopped. So there's been a reason for it, my pathological openness, as you call it. I don't have shame in my life. And I don't judge people either. The tattoos, the cutting, it is all connected to something that feels real. Now I'm a parent. I'm connected to something real in the world. But I had that problem early on when I couldn't feel a bond with another human being. People speculate about my fascination with violenc e or S&M; sex. But mostly it was all about trying to connect. A lot of my relationships just weren't honest enough. So I took them down different paths toward violence or wildness or whatever you want to call it to try to find somebody to hold me down and make me feel."

"S&M; sex can be misinterpreted as violence. It's really about trust. I like to push boundries, both emotional and sexual, with another person. That's when I've felt the sexiest. I've been in both submissive and dominant roles because I want more. I was always the top until I read somewhere that the bottom controls the top so I thought, 'Wait a minute, that's right. I'm doing all the work!' I've never been tied up though. I have a feeling the person that does it will be The One. I think that's what I'd like."

For potential boyfriends out there, this is Angelina Jolie's type: "I go for more the person than the physical appearance. To me, a guy in a suit that's all wrinkled, and he's been up for two days working and is all messy and is maybe holding a child-that would send me over the moon. A man holding a dirty baby diaper and dressed ina suit-over the moon."

The Dorchester's pianist has begun to sing Elton John's "Your Song," which she tells me was played at her parents' wedding. She hums along for a moment. Hearning herself, she stops. "A man who can be a great father means the world to me," she says softly.

Jolie's own father-actor Jon Voight-left her mother, Marcheline Betrand, when Jolie was six months old. He seldom saw his daughter while she was growing up, and after a brief reunion, the two again became estranged when Voight publicly questioned aspects of her behavior as well as her fitness to be a parent. "We don't speak," is all Jolie will say about him. (She has legally removed Voight from her name.) She is, however, extremely close to her mother, who is often wrongly identified as a French actress. "My mom is as far from French Parisian as you can get," Jolie says. "She's part Iroquois Indian, from Chicago. She grew up in a bowling alley that my grandpartents owned. She studied to be an actress, but she married my father, and by 28 she was divorced with two kids. She gave up her dreams."

Jolie-after two divorces in her 20s-has almost given up her own dream of finding the right husband, the right father for Maddox. "That's why I'm thinking about another child," she says. "Two children will be another step in building my life into this bigger group but, within that, still being my own. Maybe I should slow down where husbands are conderned. There have recently been these comments about my taking all these lovers-not that I think theres's anyything wrong with that-but where would I find the time between Maddox, my work and my UN responsibilites? I can only calculate a few hours everey month for that."

OK. She's brought it up. So let's run down the impressive list of those rumored to be among her latest lovers. (1) Brad Pitt? He's her costar in the comedy MR. AND MRS. SMITH, in which they both play assassins for hire. The production has been a troubled one, and she giggles with naughty amusement whenever she has to talk aut it and its director, Doug Lyman, with whom she and Pitt had reported "artistic differences." Did they bond in the sack? "Absolutely not," she says. "First of all, I wouldn't sleep with a married man. Plus-even though I've complained about how busy I am-I have enough lovers. I don't need Brad." (2) Colin Farrell? The 28-year-old is her costar in the upcoming Oliver Stone epic, ALEXANDER THE GREAT, in which Jolie plays the unlikely role of his mother, Olympia. Was there an Oedipal attraction off-screen? "No, there wasn't. We are very close though. The reason Colin and I haven't become a couple is that we are the same person. There'd be nobody to ground us. We'd just be nuts."

"It was ironic she played my fucking mother," says Farrell, sounding rather Oedipal after all. "She's right-we are really, really alike. I don't believe in all that fucking hocus-pocus, but we are both Geminis. Maybe we are more twins than the same person. I've never met anyone who has so much going for her tha is also so selfless. Angie is o openhearted. And so very, very, very honest. She's an amazing woman. An amazing fucking person."

(3) Val Kilmer? "Val and I are close, professional friends...with the emphasis on professional," Jolie says abut another of her ALEXANDER costars. "No truth to the rumors." (4) Oliver Stone? "No. No. He's married too...or there's a woman in his life who acts like his wife. But I do like that type. There are certainly worse people to be...well...tied to. I do like a disheveled intellectual. Oliver is fascinating."

Stone says, " I think Angelina was alive in another time. She must have been some sort of pagan queen who did astounding things, like lead armies across the deserts. I know I will get flak because she and Colin are around the same age, but I cast her because of her essence. By the end of shooting she was this mature, womanly mother."

There is a Brando quality to Jolie. Just as the late actor was completely masculine with a feminine grace, she is so ferociously female that she ends up having a masculine swagger. Her features, however-so splendid in close-up-come together to form an archetype of womanly perfection. Plastic surgeons report that her lips, her chin, her eyes, her cheeks, her nose, even her forehead are the most widely requested by patients. How does Jolie feel about being not only objectified by men, but also by women? Does she have any beauty secrets-short of the scalpel-that she would like to share? "I use Blistex on my lips," she says, rather stumped by the question. "I should exercise more. Running after Mad is a lot of exercise in and of itslef. If I'm going to do a part that calls for a certain look, then I'll exercise. But I'd rather take a boat and try to row than sit in a yoga class."

"I don't know. When I hear something like that-people using me as a model for plastic surgery-it sort of makes me sad. It's not that I'm against plastic surgery. If it makes you feel better about yourself, fine. But I love scars. I love people with strong noses or interesting features or interesting eyes. I love uniqueness and people who own their uniqueness. I've grown more comfortable with who I am, but it has nothing to do with liking the way I look. I mean, I can see what I look like, and I like what I see. I can tell you this though: I'm enjoying getting older. I'm looking forward to life affecting me."

Jolie seems more at home these days talking to Secretary of State Colin Powell about the refugee problems in Africa, as she recently did, than she is sitting here at the Dorchester and promoting yet another of her movies, DreamWork's next animated film, SHARKTALE. "I've been cast as the bad, sexy fish in it," she says, as the pianist wraps up his set with an oddly syncopated "My Way." "Is that typecasting? I mean, who am I at the end of the day?" she asks. "Am I the mom fish? Am I the sexy fish? I'm kind of every fish...But, don't worry. I'm still taking meetings with my demons. I'm like, 'Come on in, boys, I saved you a seat at the table. Come meet my dark side,'" she says, her laughter now the only music left in the Dorchester's bar."

ANGEL FACE

WHO? Angelina Jolie WHAT? The November cover of ALLURE, shot by Mario Testino. WHERE? At a studio in the Holland Park section of London, England, a 40-minute drive from her country house. WHEN? July 12. WHY? Jolie stars as the mother of the title character (played by Colin Farrell) in Oliver Stone's latest film, ALEXANDER. This is her third ALLURE cover.

LIP SYNC: Jolie arrived 15 minutes early for the shoot, wearing Express jeans, a white T-shirt by C & C California, and several Moroccan belts. Her face was free of makeup, but she did bring her favorite beige lipstick: Guertain Divinora Intense Matte SPF 15 # 480, which has been discontinued.

HIGHER LEARNING: Jolie loves to read and brought along two books: 'The Constitution of the United States: An Introduction' and 'The Private Pilot's License Course'. SMART FOOD: Jolie looked over the buffet and laughed. "I've got to fit into those dresses later!" she said. She has a croissant and fruit salad for breakfast, and a little curried chicken and vegetables with rice for lunch. She drank three cans of Diet Coke during the day.

PLAY DATE: Halfway through the shoot, Jolie's three-year-old son, Maddox, visited the studio. Maddox ran to his mother, his bracelets and anklets jangling. "He wears more jewelry than I do!" Jolie said. The two played hide-and-seek during breaks. But when Maddox fell and started crying, his mother swept him up and whispered, "It's OK, my little Khmer."

BEYOND BORDERS: Jolie is a realtor's dream, with a home near London and a house in Cambodia. This fall, the actress plans to buy another house in Spain or Italy. After the shoot she debated the merits of each with Testino as he took snapshots of mother and child."

- J. Courtney Sullivan

MAKEUP LESSON

Makeup artist Tom Pecheux needed no other inspiration than the actress herself. 1. Pecheux rubbed a light layer of bronzer all over Jolie's face and a bit more on her cheeks. 2. To make her skin sparkle, he dotted gold shimmer high on her cheekbones. 3. Pecheux applied black eyeliner on her upper lids and then smudged it with a Q-tip. He combed one coat of black mascara through her lashes. 4. A dusting of brown powder shadow on Jolie's lids and just under her bottom lashes framed her eyes. 5. Pecheux finished with a brown lip liner and brown-beige lipstick.

HAIR HOW-TO

Hairstylist Marc Lopez wanted to play up Jolie's 'ultrafeminine, sexy' hair. Using a round brush and a blow-dryer, he straightened it first, then sprayed on a heat protectant and ran over sections with a flatiron. Lopez spritzed the finished product with light-hold hair spray."