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her mother’s dream. In an interview for W Magazine’s Best Performances issue, the “Maleficent” star revealed, “I did it in the beginning because it was my mother’s dream.” She explained that her mother, Marcheline Bertrand, had initially pursued acting but shifted her focus to motherhood after becoming a divorced parent of two children by the age of 25.
Jolie clarified that Bertrand never made her feel like it was a sacrifice, as she “loved being a stay-at-home mom.” However, Bertrand harbored aspirations for her daughter to become an actress. “She really wanted me to be an actress,” Jolie recalled. “I don’t remember making the choice. I remember it made my mom happy. My mom was my manager, and we were a team.”
This is Angelina Jolie’s mom 😱. She’s stunning but I guess I can’t say I’m surprised! pic.twitter.com/g4W81QqHMb
— Brittany Hugoboom (@BritHugoboom) December 13, 2021
The Oscar winner even acknowledged her desire to provide financial support for her mother, stating, “I always wanted” to buy a home for her and “started to pay the bills” for Bertrand.
Tragically, Bertrand passed away in 2007 at the age of 56 after battling ovarian cancer and breast cancer. Jolie confessed, “When my mom passed, it was harder for me to be an actress because I realized how much of it was for her.”
In a 2015 essay for the New York Times, Jolie reflected on her mother’s influence, writing, “After she died, I found a video of her acting in a short film. She was good. It was all possible for her.”
This video of a young Angelina Jolie and her mother Marcheline pic.twitter.com/8UuotV4tMr
— ✨Raquel & her Minions✨ (@THENAGODOFWAR) February 12, 2023
Five years later, in another essay for the same publication, Jolie likened losing her mother – who had launched her own production company, Woods Road Production, in the early 2000s – to having “someone rip away a protective blanket.” She wrote, “When I look back to that time, I can see how much her death changed me. It was not sudden, but so much shifted inside. Losing a mother’s love and warm, soft embrace is like having someone rip away a protective blanket.”
Bertrand shared Jolie and son James Haven with her husband, famed actor Jon Voight. The couple divorced shortly after Jolie’s birth due to Voight’s infidelity. Jolie wrote, “When my father had an affair, it changed [my mom’s] life. It set her dream of family life ablaze. But she still loved being a mother.”
