Jolie: Uh-huh, I did.
Simon: And you even took courses to prepare yourself.
Jolie: It sounds like this very strange, eccentric, dark thing to do. But, in fact, I lost my grandfather and I was very upset with his funeral. And so, we discussed that maybe there are ways where this whole idea of how somebody passes and how a family deals with this passing and what death is should be addressed in a different way. If this acting thing didn't work out, that was gonna be my backup.
She can joke about it now, but there were other times - scary and dangerous times - that she told us were not funny at all.
Jolie: I went through heavy, darker times, and I survived them. I didn't die young. So I'm very lucky. There are other artists and people that didn't survive certain things.
Simon: You talk about heavy, darker times. What are you referring to?
Jolie: I was hoping you'd miss that. Ah, nothing I want to go into a lot of detail about. But I think people can imagine that I did the most dangerous and I did the worst, and I, for many reasons, I shouldn't be here.
Simon: That's a very provocative phrase, for many reasons--
Jolie: Well, sure. You just--
Simon: --you shouldn't be here.
Jolie: You just think that-- those too many times where you came close to too many dangerous things, too many chances taken too-- too far.
Her odd behavior was out there for everyone to see-- the intimate way she kissed her brother in public, the vials of blood she and her second husband, Billy Bob Thornton, wore around their necks. Angelina acknowledges she's taken quite a walk on the wild side, but says she's moved on.
In recent years she has been traveling the world as a Goodwill Ambassador for the UN. She's visited more than 20 countries, primarily to work with refugees.
Simon: You used to be a pretty bad girl. Now you are a UN ambassador. You are a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Jolie: Uh-huh.
Simon: You're a humanitarian activist. Do you ever miss being a bad girl?
Jolie: I'm still a bad girl.
Simon: Yeah?
Jolie: You know, I still have that side of me that is-- it's just-- it's in its place now. It belongs-- it-- you know, it belongs to Brad. Or it belongs to our adventures.
Angelina and Brad Pitt have had three children together. She also adopted three from three different countries: Cambodia, Ethiopia and Vietnam. The tabloids have the couple splitting up one week, getting married the next. Angelina told us they have no plans to get married.
Simon: The vast majority of Americans know you because you're on the cover of magazines every week and every time they go to a supermarket, they see you. What are they missing?
Jolie: Um, me. Yeah. I don't-- I don't see those things, and I don't know what they are, but I assume--
Simon: Sure you do, you know what they are.
Jolie: I assume they're not me. I assume they're not me. They're-- they're not who I am, they're not what I spend my day caring about. I find them quite shallow and often very wrong when I do hear about what they are.
