NEW YORK—Angelina! Add another celebrity to the list who need only go by one name, if she chooses.
In the month of July, Angelina (who recently, after a spat with her father, actor Jon Voight, legally dropped her surname, Voight,
and changed it to Angelina Jolie), has appeared on the cover of Entertainment Weekly and in an unprecedented move, ABC
assigned 20/20's Barbara Walters a full hour to interview Angelina; a one-hour commercial, if you will, for Tomb Raider 2.
Will all of this play in the press for Angelina and her alter ego Lara Craft, a lesbian idol (?) add up to big bucks at the box office?
Well, I had a chance to sit down with Angelina at the trendy Essex House on Central Park South before the sequel to Tomb
Raider came out and took that half hour opportunity to ask her many questions, among them, why she is so attracted to the Lara Craft
role and how life is with child and without Billy Bob Thornton.
The most noticeable thing about 28-year-old Angelina, especially when sitting knee to knee, is the tattoo patch she has. 'Sixteen,
is it, now?' I asked. 'No,' she says, laughing. 'Only 13.' Since the last time I interviewed Jolie, for the original Tomb Raider, her lips
seem to have returned to their normal size. They were no longer the swollen, bee stung-like lips of two years before. Could a divorce,
an adopted child and age have something to do with her toning down her antics?
'I love flaws on people,' she says, when I ask Jolie her opinion on what seems to be all the rage; botox, plastic surgery,
liposuction. 'When I see life on the face of a person changing, getting older, a new wrinkle, a new spot, I love it. It turns me on. I
personally am not into plastic surgery but I have nothing against anyone who chooses to use it to enhance their looks or self-esteem.
'The only thing I have enhanced in the movie,' she says, laughing, of her character Lara Craft, 'are my boobs.'
There are many special effects in this Jan DeBont action film, and Jolie admits one of the biggest ones is her enhanced breasts. 'I
am a size 36C in real life,' she says, pointing to her boobs. 'But I get to be a 38D as Lara. You gotta love those computer effects guys.
Too bad it's not that easy to make them bigger in real life.' Oh. Maybe she does want to change her appearance. Did I catch her?
'It certainly would make it less painful for all of the millions of women who choose to get their boob jobs.'
While Tomb Raider was a success at the box office, many critics and fans alike were disappointed with the story line. 'I only
signed on to the sequel,' explains Jolie, 'after being given the opportunity to look at the script and suggest certain changes about the
screenplay itself and Lara Craft's character. The story this time deals much more in reality than fantasy. Lara is more of a real woman
in the sequel than the video game character she was in the original. She has depth, a real body, not a completely cartoon looking
one, ideas AND fashion sense. She is not just running around trying to save the world.'
And saving the world is exactly what Lara Croft does in Tomb Raider 2. And from Pandora's Box being opened, no less. The
locales in this sequel, and the way they are brought to the screen, in all their beauty, are amazing. Among them: Hong Kong, Greece,
Kenya, Tanzania (and a fake set of The Great Wall of China, which looks very real).
'I am an adrenaline junkie,' says Jolie, who has twice appeared on People Magazine's Fifty Most Beautiful list. 'I loved Africa.
Since I was shooting 16 or more hours a day, I didn't have all that much time to spend with Maddox [her two-year-old son] during the
day. At lunch, if I was lucky, I would get to spend a half hour with him. But at night, after filming, was when the fun began. I would take
him out with a driver and a jeep and we would search for sleeping animals. We saw lions, elephants. We would have the flashlight
and be pointing it all over, looking for anything we could find. My son was so excited but so was I. It was so thrilling.' I asked if she
was ever worried that a sleeping lioness would wake up and charge the car and eat them for a late night snack. 'Ha, ha. Well, not
really,' she admitted. 'Our driver was good and the jeep was faster than any lioness. I think the driver even had a shotgun!'
Time has changed Jolie. Not only has she dropped her last name, Voight, and chosen to use her middle name, Jolie, as her new
legal last name, she has also divorced the Academy Award-winning actor, screenwriter, director and former co-kook, Billy Bob.
While she didn't go into details about the reasons for her breakup, one of the main reasons seems to be her newfound role as
mother. 'I take being a mother seriously,' says Jolie. 'I adopted Maddox after working on the first Tomb Raider in Cambodia and
getting to know a lot of the Cambodians in need. I know I can't save or be a mother to every child who needs one but you can't begin
to help without starting somewhere. In my heart, I know I am doing the right thing and I want to do it. I love Maddox. Adopting him has
changed me as a person. I never had a great family life and want to provide him with the best one imaginable.'
So intent is Jolie that she bought a farm and an animal refuge in Cambodia, rice paddies, huts, and all. 'While I consider London
my home, the place I am at most of the time when I am not working, Cambodia is my second home and a place that I go with Maddox
often in order to raise him amongst the people he was born amongst. I want him to be proud of his heritage and I also want to do as
much as I can to help the country, beginning with the farm I bought. The people in the village where I have my property are among the
nicest, kindest and most gentle people in the world.'
Jolie, who won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 2000 for the movie Girl, Interrupted, can do both artistic roles
like that, and the ones she did for HBO, including Gia, which earned her two Best Actress Golden Globe Awards, as well as
blockbuster, action films which instead of earning her awards earn her a huge paycheck. For the first Tomb Raider, Jolie earned $7
million. The sequel put $12 million more in her bank account.
Just in case you were wondering when you would be able to see Jolie in another Academy Award-caliber performance, well, fret
not because Beyond Borders is set to open in late October.
Beyond Borders tells the story of a romance, set across many years, between a medical student turned international disaster relief
worker (Clive Owen) and a philanthropist socialite, Sarah (Jolie). Their story sees them meeting again and again against the
backdrops of disasters and wars.
Jolie, in real life, is a UN Goodwill Ambassador.
When asked which she prefers, the action roles or meatier, emotional roles, she answers, 'Honestly, I like doing both, alternately.
For me, the action roles are a lot of fun. I love pushing myself to the limit and would do all of my own stunts if the studios would allow
it. And I like to think that those roles have somewhat of a redeeming value. If my roles as an international action star inspire people to
take care of their bodies better and work out more or travel the world, then I am all for it.'
When I asked her about her confirmed bisexuality, she said in true Angelina Jolie style, 'What's the big fucking deal? If people
would get over the whole gay/straight thing and concentrate on making their lives better and being honest about who they are if they
are gay or bisexual and minding their business about other people's choices if they are straight, the world would be a much better
place.'