Angelina Jolie has confirmed she is
retiring from acting.
The Hollywood star, who won an Oscar
for Girl Interrupted, said she did not enjoy
being the centre of attention and intended
to move permanently behind the camera
and she wants to concentrate on writing
and directing.
“I’ve never been comfortable as an actor;
I’ve never loved being in front of the
camera,” Jolie said in an interview
with Du Jour magazine.
“I didn’t ever think I could direct, but I
hope I’m able to have a career at it
because I’m much happier.”
Jolie is currently promoting her new film,
Unbroken, about Olympic runner and US
airman Louis Zamperini, who spent 47
days living on a raft after a plane crash
and survived two years as a Japanese
prisoner of war.
The 39-year-old actress made her
directorial debut in 2007 with the
documentary, A Place in Time, followed
up by the harrowing feature film, In
the Land of Blood and Honey in 2011
about the Bosnian war.
She recently signed up to direct Africa, a
biopic of Kenyan politician and
conservationist Richard Leakey.
Jolie said earlier this year that her
appearance as Cleopatra in an impending
biopic of the Egyptian queen could be her
final acting role.
Jolie, who met Zamperini shortly before
his death at the age of 97 last year,
fought to make the film, the rights of
which were sold to Universal Pictures
more than 50 years ago.
When the director told her husband, actor
Brad Pitt, that she was interested in the
script, he said: “‘Oh, honey, that project
has been around forever.’?”
Jolie said: “I fought for it for months… I
felt I needed to go on that journey, that it
would make me a better person if I could.
I was begging not only to be the director-
I was begging to have the opportunity to
spend two years of my life focused on
Louie Zamperini.”