Angelina Jolie: How I avoided the pitfalls of fame and fortune

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Angelina Jolie says she avoided becoming a Hollywood trainwreck thanks to the
unconditional love of her late mom. the actress Marcheline Bertrand. (Pics/Parade)

Angelina Jolie has been famous and wealthy for her entire adult life, but has managed to avoid becoming a Hollywood trainwreck like Lindsay Lohan or Mel Gibson because of her mom's love and support.

'SO MANY GET LOST'

"There are many people we've seen lost in this business because other people haven't stopped to make sure they're OK," Jolie says in the July 11, 2010 issue of Parade.

Adds Angelina: "People are aware when others are breaking, but in this town they don't tend to stop and help them. In the end, it costs a life. Part of the sadness in this business is that there are a lot of people in it looking for approval and love. I'm lucky because I was raised with so much love that I can take a lot of knocks and not take anything personally."

ANGIE'S MOM DIED OF OVARIAN CANCER

Jolie's late mother, the actress Marcheline Bertrand, died of ovarian cancer in Jan. 2007 at the age of 56. Angelina says her mom's unconditional love enabled her to become an adventurous risk-taker, both personally and professionally.

Here are some excerpts from her Parade interview:

On a mother's love

She was a proper mother, constant. We never had a nanny or housekeeper. Mother worked every day of her life. I've always wanted to be useful, like her. She was our everything. I've never needed to be loved because I've had my mother. So I've never felt the need to be understood.

On her childhood

I was actually quite a cool kid. I was not tough. I was certainly independent and bold. I was never teased. I never had any trouble from anybody, but I was never satisfied. I had trouble sleeping. I didn't really fit. I always feel that I'm searching for something deeper, something more, more...You want to meet other people that challenge you with ideas or with power or with passion. I wanted to live very fully. I wanted to live many lives and explore many things.

On female action heroes

Women in action movies, as I've done in the past, tend to either be fantasy or something very sexy-cool. They aren't based in any kind of reality. This is the first one that I've tried to do that is not a cartoon. It's not a fantasy. She is a good, solid character. It's about the CIA. It's today.

The action scenes in Salt

It's has lots of different twists and turns. The biggest challenge of the film was to try to create a character that people would follow and be interested in even though they weren't sure she was a good or bad person. So she was nicely complex to play. Salt has great action sequences in it. I worked with people I've worked with for 10 years on action movies, so we had fun.

Raising open-minded children

First of all, as parents, we try not to spoil our children. Because we travel a lot, what it took me until my twenties to learn about life, our children know already. They spend time in Cambodia in a teeny hut and hang out with local children. They help me visit distressed areas. They have friends with no money. They see and live in different worlds. They also appreciate having nice things. They like this house [in Los Angeles] because it has this pool. But they also love Cambodia because it's got the fun places to throw rocks and cut coconuts and ride on elephants. They love Africa because the kids are really fun to play with and the nature is so beautiful.

Setting a good example

We're just trying to show them different sides of life so they don't just think one way. We're hoping that, organically, it will be in them to feel for people who do not have as much. We want them to appreciate what they have and be grateful for it. They'll be inspired to give and help people out because they'll have close friends who don't have as much. They won't whine about things they want. And they won't want more. We try to raise them with those values in mind.

Her reply to critics who say she and Brad should adopt American kids

Everybody likes to criticize people. It's an uneducated moral snobbery. It shouldn't matter where children are born. When I first started working with refugees, people would say, 'Why aren't you helping these people and not other people?" I simply looked to help. I make the choices I make because they're the choices I feel are right. Becoming a mother was the most wonderful thing.

Protecting her children from intrusive media

We don't pay attention to it now, other than when we know we have to. If we have to [avoid the paparazzi], we go in a van, or we go underground, or have somebody block a car. Neither one of us has a publicist. We don't go to those gossip sites online. We are really pretty oblivious to it. So that helps keep the kids away from it. We move them a lot. They seem, right now anyway, quite savvy. They are six of the most interesting, toughest people I've ever met.

Her close-knit family

We're a very close, very connected, very big family. We talk a lot about things. The children talk to each other, and they look out for each other, and they have each other. Yes, they have friends, but they also are very, very closely connected to each other.

Her love for Brad

Brad is a wonderful man. He's extraordinary, because he really, really stepped out on his own away from what he knew growing up. It's just such a natural transition. When you really love someone, you evolve. Love trumps everything. It's like when you have a child. It's not that you consciously put them before yourself -- it's that doing it is what you instinctively want because you have to come from a place of love. When I think about Brad, there is a lot of love.

Being herself

I'm going to be who I am. People can hate me, and that's fine, because if somebody loves me, he loves me for being me. I am who I am at home and everywhere else in all my life.

Angelina's new movie, the spy thriller Salt, opens July 23. [see slideshow below]

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