Angelina Jolie recently opened up about how her mother, Marcheline Bertrand, influenced her decision to enter the acting world. In an interview with W Magazine, the actress shared that she initially pursued acting to fulfill her mother’s dream. Marcheline, who had once aspired to be an actress herself, had auditioned for TV and theater roles but had to put her career on hold after her divorce from Jon Voight, and she focused entirely on raising her children.
Jolie explained, “I did it in the beginning because … it was my mother’s dream.” She continued by saying that her mother, although loving her role as a stay-at-home mom, had hoped that one of her children, particularly Angelina, would follow her acting ambitions. Jolie admitted that she didn’t consciously choose acting for herself at first; she simply remembered that it made her mother happy.
When Jolie was younger and just starting her career, it was also a practical decision to help pay the bills. “I always wanted to buy her a house and things like that—it kind of started that way,” Jolie reflected. She added that once her mother passed away in 2007, it became much harder for her to continue acting. The loss of her mother left a profound impact, and she realized just how much acting had been a shared dream between them.
Jolie and Bertrand had a close bond, especially in the later years of Bertrand’s life. The actress’s mother had been diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 1999 and later breast cancer, before passing away in 2007. Despite the pain of losing her mother, Jolie carries forward the memory of their shared dreams and the love they had for each other.
