Angelina Jolie is an actress, filmmaker, and humanitarian with countless awards under her belt, but these aren’t her most important callings. She emphasized the importance of motherhood in a recent interview by saying “I am not an artist first, I’m a mom.”
Jolie is currently busy promoting her new film Maria, in which she plays the legendary opera singer Maria Callas, and she set down for an interview with The Hollywood Reporter ahead of its release. She faced many heavy moments while working on this film, and told the magazine it “really meant a lot” to her to have her sons Maddox and Pax by her side since they did some assistant directing work on the film.
Jolie also told the magazine she’s a mom first, adding she never worked on a set where her family can’t be around.
“The most beautiful thing about being a parent is that you are not the center of your life. So you are leaving set, focused on something for someone. That’s your real life. Your real world. And that always is the majority of who you are,” she told The Hollywood Reporter.
In addition to her adopted sons Maddox and Pax and daughter Zahara, Jolie also has three children—a daughter Shiloh, and twins Knox and Vivienne – from the marriage with her ex-husband Brad Pitt.