A `Jolie` Mighty Heart

Pratik Dogra

“Shiny blue eyes that seem to hypnotize.” Mankind is seldom bestowed by souls that stir the imagination of an entire generation, as much as Angelina Jolie has done. A strange magnetism seems to attract those in her presence. Seductiveness personified, Angelina can arguably stake claim to be every man’s fantasy.Early life Angelina Jolie was born on the 4th of June 1975. Angelina, daughter of Oscar-winning actor Jon Voight and Marcheline caught the acting bug from her parents. At the tender age of 11, Angelina enrolled at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute. She undertook some film studies at New York University before joining the renowned Met Theatre Group in Los Angeles. When 16, she took up a career in modeling, and appeared in some music videos. Her enchanting good looks, apparently a derivative of her mixed ancestry – which ranges from Czech, French-Canadian, Iroquois and English – must have played a part. The Rising star Throughout the mid-1990s, Angelina appeared in various small films which got her a good deal of notice, including Hackers (1995) and Foxfire (1996). 1997 proved to be a breakthrough year for Angelina. Her power packed performances in author backed roles, in movies like ‘True Women’, and ‘George Wallace’ got her rave reviews besides a Golden Globe award and an Emmy nomination. Her stock rose further when she played the lead role in an HBO production ‘Gia’, the following year. This was again a TV flick. In this true life story based upon supermodel Gia Carangi, her touching portrayal of a sensitive wild child who is both brazen and needy and is having a difficult time handling professional success and the deaths of people close to her, garnered yet another Golden Globe award and an Emmy nomination. The film also got her an SAG Award. Angelina’s career, already on an upswing, got a further boost in 1999 when she landed the leading role in the successful feature film ‘The Bone Collector’, where she got to star opposite Denzel Washington. Up next for Angelina was ‘Girl, Interrupted’ opposite Winona Ryder. This was again a true story of a women who spent time in a psychiatric hospital. Though this flick did not exactly set the box office on fire, it did get Angelina an unprecedented treble at the awards. It propelled her to her third Golden Globe, her second SAG Award and the Academy Award for the best leading actress in a supporting role. Emotional turbulance With her new-found prominence, Angelina began attracting in-depth attention from the press. Numerous aspects of her controversial personal life became news. At her wedding to Jonny Lee Miller on the twentieth of July in 1996, she sported her husband`s name on the back of her shirt painted in her own blood. Angelina and Miller divorced in 1999 and the next year, she tied the knot with Billy Bob Thornton. Angelina was the fifth wife of a man twenty years her senior. During her marriage to Thornton, the couple wore a vial of the other`s blood around their necks. This marriage lasted two years. It came apart in 2002 and ended in a divorce. Angelina, who was going through an emotionally low phase, had to face further melancholy, as she snapped ties with her father. Jolie’s shockers Angelina shared a relationship with Foxfire costar Jenny Shimizu, a mechanic turned model and actress. In an interview with Barbara Walters in the July of 2003, she admitted to having same-sex lusting. "I was surprised when I suddenly found myself having those feelings I`d always had for men for a woman," Jolie said, adding she would now consider dating someone of either gender. In 1999, after winning a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for her role in “Girl Interrupted”, Jolie shocked viewers across the world by kissing her brother James Haven on the lips and saying in her acceptance speech she is "so in love" with him. When the media began speculating about their relationship, Angelina, with her trademark Devil may Care attitude told Jay Leno in his talk show that the incest jokes were "pathetic." The year 2000 can be termed as Angelina’s coming of age year at Hollywood. When she was asked to star in ‘Lara Croft: Tomb Raider’ (2001), despite initial disinterest, she decided to give it a go. The Croft character was drawn from a popular video game and Lara Croft was a female cross between Indiana Jones and James Bond. Despite a slew of negative reviews from the critics, the movie was a run away success. It raked in a staggering USD 275 million at the Box Office as the audience queued up to watch a buffed up Angelina portray the adventuresome Lara Croft. Her father Jon Voight also appeared in this flick and during the shooting there was a brief rapprochement between father and daughter. Truly Angelic While ‘Croft’ was an important flick in Angelina’s kitty, her experiences during the movie also brought forth a new aspect of her persona. During one of the movie`s filming in Cambodia, Angelina witnessed the natural beauty, local culture of the country plagued by poverty. This trip was an eye opening experience for her and inspired her to instigate a humanitarian chapter in her life. Since then, she has been a regular at various refugee camps around the world. She has formally been appointed as a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Her transition from a bee-stung-lipped wild child to a globe-trotting UN goodwill ambassador was nothing short of remarkable. She recently stated her plans to spend most of her time in humanitarian efforts, which are financed by her salary. She devotes a third of her income to savings, another third to her living expenses and the final third to charity. In 2002, Angelina adopted a Cambodian refugee boy named Maddox and in 2005 adopted an Ethiopian refugee girl named Zahara. Her dramatic feature film Beyond Borders, which drew parallels from some of her real life humanitarian experiences although, despite the inclusion of a romance between two westerners, was found to be "too depressingly realistic" by critics and masses alike and didn’t have too many takers. Brangelina frenzy grips paparazzi In 2004, Angelina began filming for Mr & Mrs Smith. She was paired opposite Brad Pitt. As the film became a major box office success, throughout the shooting, rumors of affairs between Pitt and Jolie flew thick and fast. Pitt, who at the time was “happily married” to actress Jennifer Aniston refuted the reports. Angelina too maintained that “since her mother had been hurt by adultery, she herself could never participate in an affair with a married man”. Nonetheless, Pitt separated from Aniston in January 2005. In the months that followed, not surprisingly, he was frequently seen in the company of Angelina. As Pitt`s divorce finalized towards the end of 2005, Angelina and Pitt announced in early 2006 that they would have a child together. She gave birth to daughter Shiloh in May that year. They also adopted a three-year-old Vietnamese boy named Pax. The couple, known as ‘Brangelina’, continues to pursue movie and humanitarian projects. Her fixation with real life characters continued with ‘A Mighty Heart’. The film is based on Mariane Pearl`s account of the terrifying and unforgettable story of her husband, Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. Angelina’s restrained performance as Marianne Pearl is a testimony to her acting prowess. The film also got her a 4th Golden Globe award. Her last flick ‘Beowulf’, an action film based on the old English epic poem of the same name, was in animation. In 2008, Jolie confirmed that she`s carrying twins, which will round out their brood to six! Trivia • A United Nations Goodwill ambassador, some of her experiences were written and published in her popular book "Notes from My Travels". The profits go to UNHCR. • In 2007, Angelina was named Cosmopolitan Magazine`s Ultimate Woman Who Made Us Care. • Angelina was voted as the #9 fantasy girlfriend in a poll conducted by AskMen.com for the "Top 99 Most Desirable Women of 2007". The website asked voters to consider qualities including sex appeal and beauty, and intelligence, humor, charisma and ambition. • Angelina was chosen as one of People Magazine`s annual `100 Most Beautiful People in the World`, in May 2007. • Angelina ranked #12 in Maxim`s Hot 100 List. • Angelina`s many tattoos include the Japanese sign for death, two pointy black American Indian symbols, a dragon, a large black cross, an `H` on the inside of her wrist, the Tennesee Williams quote, "A prayer for the wild at heart, kept in cages," on her left forearm, the words "Lady Croft" on an arm and the Latin phrase "Quod me nutrit me destruit" ("What nourishes me also destroys me") across her stomach. • Angelina is one of the first actress to win 3 consecutive Golden Globes in 3 different categories: "Best Supporting Actress in a Mini Series": George Wallace (1997) (TV), "Best Actress in a TV Movie or Mini Series": Gia (1998) (TV), "Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture": Girl, Interrupted (1999). Coincidentally, all these roles were based on real people. • Angelina is very fond of the Liverpool Football Club because her son, Maddox, wants to play for the club • In 2005, Angelina was voted the #1 star most men would like to kiss under the mistletoe, in a poll for ‘Sky Movies’ in 2005.

• In 2004, Angelina was made an honorary citizen of Cambodia by the Prime Minister of Cambodia because of her social work there. • In high school, Angelina was extremely thin, used to wear glasses and had braces, as a result, she was always teased by other students.