The story of Angelina Jolie is almost mythical. Like a phoenix from the ashes, she has risen time and time again to conquer incalculable odds.
To help us better understand the woman behind the myth, here are 10+ little known facts about Angelina Jolie fans should learn. Take a look for yourself and see how your knowledge stacks up!
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Angelina Jolie is one of the most famous women in Hollywood.
She is known for far more than just her acting skills.
She is an amazing activist, and was in the news for a long time due to the drama that surrounded her and Brad Pitt.
However, just because she is super famous, that doesn’t mean fans know everything about her!
In fact, there are a ton of things that fans might not know about the major star!
But don’t worry! We are here to help! Let’s get into it!
1. Above all else, Angelina is an activist first.
Angelina has served as a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
The appointment came after she visited and provided relief efforts in Pakistan, Tanzania, as well as Sierra Leone.
“I’ve become a better human being. I’ve learned the strength of the human spirit.”
“I see different aid workers in camps helping each other from everywhere – people who have come together from all over the world to help. It’s changed my view of what is important,” she has said.
2. Her childhood dream was incredibly morbid and a little creepy.
While most kids her age were dreaming about becoming famous rockstars or athletes, Angelina aspired to be a funeral director.
As a young girl, Angelina was fascinated by death and wanted to explore the concept to the fullest.
That need to explore the concept led her to experiment in her life.
“And in fact it wasn’t a need to be destructive or rebellious—it’s that need to find a full voice, to push open the walls around you. You want to be free.”
“And as you start to feel that you are being corralled into a certain life, you kind of push against it.”
“It may come out very strange, it may be interpreted wrong, but you’re trying to find out who you are.”
3. Angelina has a thing for reptiles.
When she was a kid, Angelina used to keep snakes as pets! She reportedly owned two of them growing up.
As you can probably imagine, this came in handy when the time came for her to shoot the snake scene in Alexander .
4. Acting runs in the family.
Angelina is the daughter of legendary actor, Jon Voight. The pair have had a very public and tumultuous relationship over the years, which Jolie says stemmed from Voight’s infidelity toward her mother.
The pair appeared on-screen together in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider .
5. You more than likely haven’t seen her breakthrough film role.
The film was Hackers and Angelina played Kate Libby, better known on the dark web as Acid Burn .
When I was young, my best friend was totally obsessed with this movie. It actually isn’t half-bad to tell you the truth.
Speaking of *Hackers*, Angelina ended up eloping with her co-star, Johnny Lee Miller.
Angelina took things to a whole new level of weird when she decided to wear a white shirt with Johnny’s name written on the back — in her own blood !
This became a recurring theme in her subsequent marriage to Billy Bob Thornton.
To celebrate their first year of marriage, Billy Bob and Angelina wore a vial of each other’s blood around their necks.
Does anyone else think that Angelina might actually be a vampire?
6. Angelina is a certified pilot.
Angelina has what’s called a Single Engine Land Rating , which basically means she can fly any single-engine plane (other than a seaplane) under visual flight rules.
This means that Angelina is not instructed on how to fly with the assistance of instruments…yet.
7. She and her brother are extremely close.
Angelina says that since both she and her brother had an estranged relationship with their father, it brought them closer together.
But their behavior is often “a little more than kin.” At one point, the siblings were accused of having an incestuous relationship with one another.
8. Angelina understands the value of quid pro quo.
In preparation for the birth of their daughter Shiloh , Angelina and Brad Pitt sold the first pictures of their newborn for an incredible $4.1 million.
After receiving the funds, they donated the proceeds to charity.
9. Angelina was made a full Cambodian citizen.
Over the years Angelina has worked tirelessly to help the people of Cambodia .
In 2005, she was made an honorary citizen by the king himself, as a way of saying thank you for her tireless efforts.
10. She’s had to make incredibly difficult choices in her life.
In 2013, Angelina received horrible news. Her doctor informed her that she carried a recessive gene that gave her an 87% probability of contracting breast cancer .
Rather than face the odds, Angelina made the decision to have a double mastectomy.
11. Angelina is the reason that Lana Del Rey was chosen to sing “Once Upon A Dream.”
Lana Del Rey’s voice has the haunting allure of a siren’s call. It’s equal parts captivating and eerie and her talents played perfectly for the score of the film.
It was all thanks to Angelina, who is said to have hand-picked Lana for the job.
12. Angelina encourages a love of languages in her children.
Being as multicultural and diverse as the Jolie-Pitt family are, they have many opportunities to learn from one another.
More specifically, Jolie makes sure that the kids all learn more than one language .
Maddox is studying German and Russian, Shiloh is taking Khmer, Knox is learning sign language, Pax speaks Vietnamese, Vivienne is focused on Arabic, and Zahara speaks French!
I don’t know about you, but that sounds like a really well-educated bunch!
Languages aren’t easy to learn!
13. She’s a real-life dame.
In case you were wondering, a dame is essentially the female equivalent of a knight. Why knights still can’t be female is a discussion for another day.
Angelina was made an honorary dame in 2014 for her work in UK foreign policy.
14. She is afraid of living a “half-lived” life.
“I realized that very young—that a life where you don’t live to your full potential, or you don’t experiment, or you’re afraid, or you hesitate, or there are things you know you should do but you just don’t get around to them, is a life that I’d be miserable living.”
“And the only way to feel that I’m on the right path is just to be true to myself, whatever that may be, and that tends to come with stepping out of something that’s maybe safe or traditional.”
Honestly, she makes a lot of sense if you ask me.
15. She would like her children to stay away from the world of Hollywood.
“Brad and I made the decision that we wouldn’t keep them from sets and the fun of making movies, but we wouldn’t [glorify it either]—we wouldn’t make it a good thing or a bad thing. But I would really prefer they do something else,” she said to Elle .
16. She wanted to be a funeral director.
We might have mentioned it above when we talked about her fascination with death, but we’re going to deep dive into it more!
There was a very thoughtful reason behind her desire!
She said:
“It sounds like this very strange, eccentric, dark thing to do but in fact I lost my grandfather and was very upset with his funeral. How somebody passes and how family deals with this passing and what death is should be addressed in a different way.”
17. She had a very hard time with her mental health during her teenage years.
“I knew little about the world and I was completely self-absorbed,” she said. “I used to think I was unstable, because I had this thirst for something. I could never figure out what it was.”
“I couldn’t sleep at night, and I always wanted to be somewhere else, and I have a window tattooed, this little box, and it’s because wherever I was, I wanted to be somewhere else.”
“And I always saw myself — wherever I was in life — staring out the window.”
18. She doesn’t really know how to decorate her house.
Just because movies and TV tells us women have an eye for decoration, that doesn’t mean it’s true!
In fact, Jolie doesn’t really know how to manage that! House stuff, and decorating, according to her “was always Brad’s thing.”
19. She is making sure that the family is not torn apart by her personal issues with Brad Pitt.
“We care for each other and care about our family, and we are both working towards the same goal.” she said in an interview with Vanity Fair .
It’s important to keep the family working well!
Do you know any other interesting or little known facts about major Hollywood star Angelina Jolie?
Or were you pleasantly surprised by these facts? Which one was your favorite?
Let us know down below in the comments! We would love to hear from you!
