Angelina Jolie spoke openly about death, health, and her relationship with her children on the release of her new film, Vidas Entrelaçadas.
In an interview given to VarietyThe actress explained how her family’s history of cancer profoundly affected her outlook on life. Jolie revealed that she grew up without the belief that she could live long and that she raised her six children by preparing them for the eventuality of her absence.
The reflection arose while commenting on a scene in the film in which her character is diagnosed with breast cancer. The actress lost both her mother and grandmother to the disease and, in 2013, underwent a preventative double mastectomy after discovering she carried the BRCA1 genetic mutation, which significantly increases the risk of developing breast and ovarian cancer.
“It’s very hard to realize that we’re all going to die and that we won’t be here forever,” she said. “Having lost my mother at a young age and never having known my grandmother, I never felt like I could count on a long life.”
Jolie admitted that this awareness also affects her approach to the present: “Maybe I suffer because I feel like I can’t fully live in the moment. I always feel like I have to rush, that I have to do everything quickly, as if time is running out.”
According to the actress, this perception is directly reflected in her children’s education. “I prepare them to live without me, not for a future in which I will be present as a grandmother. That’s what happens when you consider death a concrete reality,” she explained.
In the same interview, Jolie said she had rediscovered her “fighting spirit” thanks to the encouragement of her children, who pushed her to return in front of the camera after years dedicated mainly to directing and a long period marked by the difficulties of her divorce from Brad Pitt.
Jolie and Pitt’s relationship lasted from 2005 to 2016. The two married in 2014 and have six children: Maddox Jolie-Pitt, Pax Jolie-Pitt, Zahara Jolie-Pitt, Shiloh Jolie-Pitt, and twins Knox Jolie-Pitt and Vivienne Jolie-Pitt. Their divorce was officially finalized in 2024, after years of legal battles.