For the first time since Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt coupled up, she opens up in January’s Vogue and comes clean about the chemistry on the set of Mr. & Mrs. Smith when he was still married to Jennifer Aniston. Jolie reveals details about their lives to the magazine, which is on newsstands Friday.
Pitt:
“Brad was a huge surprise to me. I, like most people, had a very distant impression of him from … the media. I am just as guilty! … We push each other to be better. Even if it’s just a better bike rider or a better pilot. We’re constantly in competition with each other. He’s somebody I admire based on the way he lives his life. And that’s why I’m with him.” He is also “the person closest to me.”
Their relationship:
Jolie and Pitt weren’t looking for love on the set of Mr. & Mrs. Smith, but she admits that is where they started to fall in love. During filming, the co-stars “found this strange friendship and partnership that kind of just suddenly happened. I think a few months in I realized, God, I can’t wait to get to work. Whether it was shooting a scene or arguing about a scene or gun practice or dance class or doing stunts — anything we had to do with each other, we just found a lot of joy in it together and a lot of real teamwork.” After a lot of contemplation, “life developed in a way where we could be together, and where it felt like something we would do, we should do.” But don’t expect them to marry. “We are legally bound to our children, not to each other, and I think that’s the most important thing.”
Aniston:
Jolie initially denies that she has met Aniston, but she clarifies herself. “We’ve, like, passed each other and said ‘hi’ briefly, shook hands. But not a real sit-down-and-talk kind of meeting.” Will they have a proper meeting? “That would be her decision, and I would welcome it.”
Maddox, 5:
The son she adopted during her marriage to Billy Bob Thornton was crucial in her decision to be with Pitt. “We left a lot of it up to Mad, and he took his time and then made the decision one day” when he first referred to Pitt as “Dad.”
Zahara, 23 months:
Jolie had already initiated the process to adopt Zahara when her relationship with Pitt blossomed. “We both saw her picture in a file on the same day, and we both went to Ethiopia to see her, and we both had the same fear because she was sick at the time, and we both made the decision that no matter what, we were going to look after her.”
Shiloh, 6 months:
“The day Shiloh came home … we looked around at three sleeping children and each other and thought, My God! Here we are! This is amazing! Couldn’t be happier! But …wow. We can’t even figure out how to get them all in the car.”
