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Angelina Jolie: Hollywood's Child

Angelina Jolie is easily one of the most talked-about young actresses in Hollywood today. Earlier this year she won an Oscar for her supporting role in Girl, Interrupted. But her accomplishments often are overshadowed by events in her personal life.

CBS News Early Show Contributor Laurie Hibberd caught up with Jolie to talk about her new film, Gone in 60 Seconds, and about life in general, including her recent marriage to actor-screenwriter Billy Bob Thornton.

Gone in 60 Seconds is an action film, and that's no accident. Jolie says she needed to do something different after the drama of Girl, Interrupted. "It was a really heavy thing," she explains. "It weighed on me."

So she lightened up with 60 Seconds, in which she plays a car thief opposite Nicolas Cage. That's quite a difference from the mental patient she played in Girl, Interrupted.

"As an actor, you worry…if you become…known (for) who you are…'cause you think, 'I'm supposed to tell stories, and you're supposed to believe I'm other people. You shouldn't be so focused about who I really am.'"

If awards are any indication, it would appear that Jolie is regarded as a credible actress. The trophies she has garnered this year alone include the Oscar, a prize her father, Jon Voight, won 22 years ago. He was especially pleased and proud that she mentioned him in her acceptance speech.

"It's a moment where...it's not difficult to remember the people that you love, 'cause…it's a moment where you are very focused on your life, and who's been at your side," Jolie recalls.

She paid tribute to Voight as a father during her speech.

"He told me that that was one of the...biggest compliments somebody could give him, that it was so important to be a great father," she says. "And so it was a really special night for everybody in my family."

Much was made in the media of her very close relationship with her brother, James. He was unfazed by the furor, says Jolie, because he was aware that his sister was getting ready to marry Thornton, who was her costar in Pushing Tin (1999). They shocked the entertainment world by eloping to Las Vegas a month after the Oscars. And, of married life, Jolie says, "It's amazing!"

Ask her if she feels like a big Hollywood star, and Jolie will turn back to reality: "I feel like a woman in love. And I feel like my brother's sister, my husband's wife, and my father's daughter. And that's who I feel like every second."

She's also a busy actress. Already this year, Jolie has filmed the thriller Dancing in the Dark with Antonio Banderas and is currently in England filming the action/adventure Tomb Raider, based on a popular video game.

FAST FACTS ABOUT ANGELINA JOLIE

  • Born Angelina Jolie Voight in Los Angeles, Calif., on June 4, 1975. She is the daughter of actor Jon Voight and actress Marcheline Bertrand.
  • Raised mostly by her mother after her parents divorced while she was still a baby. In her teens, she traveled as a professional model, living in London and New York. She appeared in music videos for Meat Loaf, Lenny Kravitz and The Lemonheads. She studied at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute and New York University, where she first started acting in theatre productions.
  • Won a role in 1993's Cyborg 2, then gained more notice in 1995's Hackers, where she met and later married Trainspotting actor Jonny Lee Miller. Their marriage was brief but they only made the divorce official in 1999. Jolie dated Timothy Hutton in 1998-99
  • After a string of films with little recognition, she hit it big with critical acclaim for two TV movies, George Wallace (1997) and Gia (1998).
  • In 1998, she was part of the multigenerational cast of Playing by Heart, with Sean Connery, Gena Rowlands, Anthony Edwards, Gillian Anderson, and Madeline Stowe.
  • In 1999, she played the wife of her now-husband Billy Bob Thornton in the critical and commercial flop Pushing Tin, co-starring John Cusack and Cate Blanchett. She also starred opposite Denzel Washington in The Bone Collector.
  • In 2000, Jolie's star received one of its greatest boosts to date when the actress won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of a volatile mental patient in Girl, Interrupted.
  • She has a strong bond with her brother, actor/filmmaker Jamie Haven, who often accompanies her to awards shows. They caused a stir at the Oscars in March of 2000, when Jolie, accepting her award, said how much she was "in love with" her brother. Rumors circulated that the siblings were having an incestuous affair, but Jolie said the love was purely of admiration for her brother.
  • Shortly after that Oscars incident, Jolie married actor Billy Bob Thornton in early May.
  • Her latest efforts include playing a car thief opposite Nicolas Cage in Gone in Sixty Seconds, and the upcoming period thriller Dancing in the Dark, with Antonio Banderas.
AWARDS

  • 2000 ShoWest: Supporting Actress of the Year
  • 1999 Academy Award, Best Supporting Actress for Girl, Interrupted
  • 1999 Golden Globe, Best Supporting Actress, Motion Picture for Girl, Interrupted
  • Screen Actors Guild, Best Female Actor in a Supporting Role for Girl, Interrupted
  • 1998 Screen Actors Guild, Female Actor, Television Movie or Miniseries for Gia
  • 1998 Golden Globe, Best Actress in a Miniseries or Motion Picture Made for TV for Gia
  • 1998 Golden Satellite, Best Actress in a Miniseries or Motion Picture Made for TV for Gia
  • 1997 Golden Globe, Best Supporting Actress in a Series,
    Miniseries or Made-for-TV Movie
    for George Wallace
FILMOGRAPHY

  • Tomb Raider (2001)
  • Gone in 60 Seconds (2000)
  • Dancing in the Dark (2000)
  • Girl, Interrupted (1999)
  • The Bone Collector (1999)
  • Pushing Tin (1999)
  • Playing by Heart (1998)
  • Hell's Kitchen (1998)
  • Gia (1998) (TV)
  • Playing God (1997)
  • George Wallace (1997) (TV)
  • True Women (1997)
  • Love Is All There Is (1996)
  • Foxfire (1996)
  • Mojave Moon (1996)
  • Hackers (1995)
  • Without Evidence (1995)
  • Cyborg 2: Glass Shadow (1993)
  • Lookin' to Get Out (1982)

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