Angelina Jolie: Shooting Movie Easier Than Being At Home With Kids

Angelina Jolie appeared on 60 Minutes last night to promote her upcoming directorial debut, In The Land Of Blood And Honey, about Bosnia’s civil war beginning in 1992. We learn a lot about Jolie in the segment, including the fact that she planned to be a funeral director prior to becoming an actress because she was unimpressed with how her own grandfather’s funeral went down. Jolie also admitted she’s lucky to be alive, that she didn’t die young (“I went through heavy, darker times and I survived them,” she told host Bob Simon).

But the most surprising part of the interview – or at least the most poignant, anyway – was watching Jolie tear up when discussing her mother Marcheline Bertrand, who passed away in 2007. Jolie, 36, has six children with husband Brad Pitt, and so I think for anyone just being a mother makes you reflect on your own upbringing in a whole new way.

“My mother was a full-time mother. She didn’t have much of her own career, her own life, her own experiences. Everything was for her children,” Jolie said on 60 Minutes. “I will never be as good a mother as she was. I will try my best, but I don’t think I ever will be… She was the most generous, loving woman. She’s better than me.”

It was surprisingly touching to see Jolie talking about her mother, maybe because it felt so genuine compared to most of the other snippets we see of the actress. In the same segment, she talked about how she and Pitt never work at the same time so that one of them is always at home with the kids. And she admitted that working on set is much easier than being at home with the children, which I thought was a very honest and cool thing to say (though she prefers the latter). Needless to say, I agree that being in an office is easier than being at home with the kids – no matter which you prefer – and I love that Jolie said this so candidly.

(Photo/video: cbsnews.com)