Angelina Jolie: The Joy of Being Jolie

Q: When did you attend film school at NYU?

A: Right after Gia. I was 21. I took writing, directing and photography to understand cinematography. It was a healing time for me. I felt very alone. My head was still shaved from the last scenes of Gia. Jonny and I had separated. I was alone in New York. I traded being number one on the call sheet, having my trailer, and doing interviews for being on the New York subway with a shaved head and a backpack, going to school.

Q: Sharon Stone said, "When fame comes upon people who are really young, they don't know that they're being eaten by it. They think they're being fed by it." She was, however, impressed with your tattoo: "That which nourishes me also destroys me." She said, "Can you imagine what you must know at that age to have done that to yourself?" What did you know?

A: I never thought of it as having anything to do with fame. I got it two years ago, when I was 23. I meant that hunger for life, that thing that kept me up all night, that made it impossible for me to ever sleep. I'm never comfortable or settled. As much as I love acting--and I love my work, and I love life--sometimes you feel the madness is killing you. But it's also the thing that keeps you alive. I don't think you can be destroyed by anything you don't love.

Q: Where's the quote from?

A: Lord Byron.

Q: Explain your fascination with tattoos.

A: It's like a statement of who you are, a reminder of the things that matter to you. I actually had one removed that said "Death" because people kept taking it the wrong way. I had it over my left shoulder because we could all die tomorrow, so we should live today. I don't fear death and I don't think of it as an ugly, scary thing.

Q: I read you had the letter H tattooed on your arm for both your brother and Timothy Hutton.

A: The H is for my brother. Tim and I were just a rumor. I never actually saw him. We were friends who both lived in New York and we hung out. We never went to dinner for two years after we did Playing God because I was married.

Q: Besides having tattoos drawn on you, don't you also like to draw?

A: I paint, yeah.

Q: Real life or abstract?

A: Abstract. I like drawing old men's faces and women's naked bodies. And words. Egon Schiele is my favorite artist. He draws naked, exposed women looking right at you. I like that.

Q: If you could live inside a painting for a while, which painting would you choose?

A: There was a time when Egon Schiele was in prison, and he drew a picture of himself on a bed. I always wondered what that room smelled like, and felt like. It was a very cold room.

Q: If God were a real person, who might he or she be like?

A: Billy Bob's seven-year-old son, William. He says it's OK for us to kiss. Or his other son, Harry, who skips. That's what we should all be doing, skipping down the street. [Laughs]

Q: Were you brought up religious?

A: Nothing was forced upon me. My mom's Catholic. My dad was raised Catholic but has studied all different religions.

Q: Your dad once told me he was angry at the Catholic Church for a while.

A: He didn't like the structure of certain things. If you take a lot of that stuff very seriously, you feel like a sinner. You feel there's no way to live your life.

Q: Is your mother very religious?

A: She prays, she has pictures of Jesus up. It makes her feel safe and happy.

Q: Do you pray?

A: I've prayed--that I wanted to do good things. This business can make you forget what's important, or it can make you realize what's important. When I was upset about not being able to do Oliver Stone's Beyond Borders--which I thought was so important, I wanted to go to these places and to do good things with my life--I prayed.

Q: What's your idea of heaven?

A: Maybe it's what each of us believes it is; maybe it's some strange dream state. I like to believe that people should live in today, in this moment, and that you should love who you love right now.

Q: What's your favorite book?

A: The House of the Dead by Dostoyevsky.

Q: Have you learned to play the drums?

A: I bought a drum set in New York and I'd love to learn to play when I have the time. But I married a great drummer. It's one of the sexiest things in the world to go downstairs in my pajamas and watch him play the drums.

Q: You've said you collect knives. What kind of knives?

A: They're all kinds from different countries. Some have been gifts, some are antiques. They're not expensive museum pieces. My favorite ones are the ones that probably cost me five dollars on the street in some country. They're all in a locked case.

Q: Do you have many friends from the different places you've lived?

A: No, I don't have many friends.

Q: Does that make you sad?

A: No, it's nice for me. When people have a close circle of people around them, they don't experience life truly. When I go off alone I don't hurt anyone's feelings. And if I suddenly have new friends in my life, it doesn't upset the old friends.

Q: If you could live anywhere, where would you choose?

A: I wouldn't want to be set in any place. I'd just want to be with my husband. He's my home.

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Lawrence Grobel interviewed Christina Ricci for the May issue of Movieline.

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