Angelina Jolie describes Hollywood as ‘shallow’ and ‘not a healthy place’

By Lisa Respers France, CNN

(CNN) — Angelina Jolie says she wouldn’t be an actress if she was starting out in the entertainment industry today.

That was just one of the revelations the star shared in her recently published interview with the Wall Street Journal Magazine.

In an article, titled “Angelina Jolie Is Rebuilding Her Life,” she talked “healing” after her split from Brad Pitt to her plans for the future.

She also touched on her feelings about the town that helped make her a star.

“I grew up in quite a shallow place,” Jolie said of Hollywood. “Of all the places in the world, Hollywood is not a healthy place. So you seek authenticity.”

The daughter of actor Jon Voight, Jolie told the publication, “Because I grew up around Hollywood, I was never very impressed with it. I never bought into it as significant or important.”

But given the choice to break into the industry now, Jolie probably wouldn’t.

“I wouldn’t be an actress today,” she said, with the caveat that perhaps she would have done theater, but not Hollywood. “When I was starting out, it wasn’t as much of an expectation to be as public, to share so much.”

Part of the scrutiny has come about as a result of her filing from divorce seven years ago from Pitt with whom she shares six children.

During that time, Jolie has cut back on work and mostly been at home with her children.

“We had to heal,” she said of her family. “There are things we needed to heal from.”

She understands the interest in her life. At one point she and Pitt were a golden couple in the industry.

“Since I was young, people liked the part of me that’s pretty tough and maybe a bit wild—that’s the part that I think people enjoy,” Jolie said. “I’m not the one [who] you want to hear about my pain or my sadness. You know, that’s not entertaining.”

The humanitarian who is as comfortable in a refugee camp as she is on a movie set, said she plans to eventually move from Los Angeles and spend more time at her home in Cambodia.

“It’s part of what happened after my divorce,” Jolie said. “I lost the ability to live and travel as freely. I will move when I can.”

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