Angelina Jolie Reveals Her Favorite Starring Role

Angelina Jolie is one of the most sought after actresses in Hollywood, having appeared in about 40 films.

But what’s her favorite? 2007’s A Mighty Heart, in which she played Marianne Pearl, the wife of slain Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.

Jolie ticks off the reasons in the December issue of Vogue: “Possibly because I loved Marianne, and Brad [Pitt] produced it, and I think it was a well-done film about something that matters.”

She picked The Tourist, co-starring Johnny Depp and due in theaters Dec. 10, because “I was looking for a very short thing to do before Brad started filming [Moneyball].”

“And I said I needed something that shoots not too long, in a nice location for my family. Somebody said there’s a script that’s been around, and it shoots in Venice and Paris. And I said, ‘Is it a character I haven’t played before?’ And they said, ‘Yes, it’s a lady,'” laughs Jolie.

Related Stories

Business

Jeffrey Ballard, Publicist for Charlie Sheen, Paula Abdul and Many Others, Dies at 64

Business

Brad Pitt's Plan B Nabs Audible Development Deal

She and Pitt “take turns working… One of us is always at home with the kids—always… Taking them out to things and being there with them and bringing them to school or to the set to visit Mommy or Daddy.”

The Tourist‘s director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck tells Vogue he was eager to work with Jolie.

“She gets every single script that has a female role aged between eighteen and 40 –every script. And she just follows her feeling, holds her own counsel. She’s probably the only global megastar that doesn’t even have an agent — she doesn’t even have a publicist,” says Donnersmarck.

Jolie also explains to Vogue why she was drawn to Salt, which had originally been written for Tom Cruise, even though she had to train quickly after welcoming twins Knox and Vivienne.

“I felt it was a weird thing that every time you ask for a strong female role, it’s written in this strange way where it uses sexuality far too much. Or it’s all about being a woman and beating a man. So it wasn’t a surprise to me that the only way to do a strong female role properly was to not have originally written for a woman,” she says.