She’s no average Jolie Special? Not me, the star who has and does everything tells Kate Bussmann A ngelina Jolie has six children, three of them adopted from far-flung places. She’s half of probably the most photographed and photogenic couple in the world. She’s won an Oscar and three Golden Globes. In her spare time, she travels to refugee camps — often flying herself there — to raise awareness of the plight of victims of war and natural disaster. But the 35-year-old movie star insists she’s not that unusual. ‘‘I live in extremes and I’ve had these extreme opportunities, but I think I’m very much what most women are,’’ she says. The woman voted sexiest and most beautiful in the world too many times to count, today couldn’t look less ordinary if she tried. In an elegant hotel room at Manhattan’s Ritz-Carlton, she’s wearing a gold sequin L’Wren Scott jacket over a black Dolce and Gabbana pencil skirt that shows off her curves. Her eyelashes are at least half an inch long and that famous pout is just as distracting, although most of the time it’s stretched into a wide, easy grin. ‘‘I honestly think every woman has a side that’s extremely nurturing and a side that’s behind closed doors, and is also very conscious of the global issues — and when confronted with it, wants to do something about it,’’ she said. ‘‘So it’s actually not very unusual. I’m down-to-earth in many ways. I’m a mom, first and foremost, and that keeps me grounded and happy. And I know that that is the most important job I’m doing . . . But am I capable of being completely irreverent and a little wild? ‘‘Yeah, absolutely!’’ We’re here to talk about The Tourist, her new romantic thriller with Johnny Depp. Filmed in stunning locations in Paris and Venice, it has the feel of a Hitchcock movie. Jolie plays Elise, a glamorous woman of mystery whose former lover is on the run from dangerous criminals and the police. Italian job: Jolie, Brad Pitt and kids in Venice because either of them is especially shy, or because their respective other halves, Brad Pitt and Vanessa Paradis, would be jealous. No, the problem was pure practicality: both she and Depp are covered in tattoos. ‘‘They have to paint you like a car,’’ she says, imitating being sprayed. ‘‘The amount of hours it was going to take to cover Johnny and I at the same time — it would have been a nightmare.’’ Moments before she arrives today, a publicist warns against asking personal questions, but Jolie is famously open. ‘‘I have nothing to hide,’’ she says. And in fact, her life story is right there on the surface of her skin. A row of co-ordinates on her shoulder lists the places where each of her children was born: Maddox, 8, from Cambodia; Zahara, 5, from Ethiopia; Shiloh, her four-year-old daughter with Pitt, who was born in Namibia; Pax, 7, from Vietnam; and two-year-old twins Vivienne and Knox, who were born in France. The tatts almost cover the spot where Jolie once had the name of former husband, actor Billy Bob Thornton, inked on her upper arm. She had it removed after their split. ‘‘I’ll never be stupid enough to have a man’s name tattooed on me again,’’ she said at the time — hence there’s nothing with Pitt’s name on it. Even so, their commitment to each other is obvious. They met in 2005 when making Mr And Mrs Smith (Pitt was married to Jennifer Aniston at the time, but both he and Jolie insist they got together after those two split). Jolie and Pitt have an agreement that only one of them works at a time. ‘‘I’d love to work with Brad again,’’ Jolie says. ‘‘But sometimes people like to see real couples on screen and sometimes it actually throws them.’’ Their day-to-day life is far from normal. ‘‘We really hope to raise our children in the world,’’ she says, and means it literally — the family travel constantly. That was partly why she chose to do The Tourist, with two months living in a palazzo on the Grand Canal, where they kept up the kids’ schooling through the Lycée Francais program. Jolie has just finished directing her first film (‘‘I learned how much I preferred being a director,’’ she laughs) and will begin editing it in the New Year. In the meantime, they’re planning to be tourists themselves. ‘‘We’re still trying to figure out where to go for Christmas,’’ she says. ‘‘We love safari adventures and living in tents.’’ ■ The Tourist is released on Boxing Day ANGELINA’S LEADING MEN GETTY IMAGES Extremes: Angelina Jolie in New York last week Depp plays the tourist of the title, a schoolteacher swept up into the drama, who Elise begins to fall for. It’s the first time Depp and Jolie have worked together — indeed, they hadn’t crossed paths before making the film — and anticipation has been high. But logistics got in the way of shooting one scene that doubtless would have made the biggest headlines. ‘‘There was going to be a shower scene,’’ says Jolie. Why did they decide against it? Not JONNY LEE MILLER BILLY BOB THORNTON COLIN FARRELL BRAD PITT IN 1995, a 20-year-old Jolie starred in Hackers, a thriller with Brit Jonny Lee Miller. They wed a year later. Although splitting 12 months on, Jolie said he was the ‘‘greatest husband’’. DESPITE a 20-year age gap, Jolie fell for her Pushing Tin co-star Billy Bob Thornton in 1999 and they married in 2000. The controversial couple wore vials of each other’s blood until their split. STARRING in the epic flick Alexander as mother and son didn’t stop Jolie and Farrell falling for each other on set in 2004. Farrell later described Jolie as his perfect woman. AFTER meeting on the Mr and Mrs Smith set in 2005, the actors became an item after Pitt split with wife Jennifer Aniston. They went on to become the most famous couple in the world. 124 December 12, 2010 THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH www.sundaytelegraph.com.au