Is the stage set for a President Jolie?
SHE’S played everything from sexy spies to action heroines and dark fairies on the silver screen.
But Angelina Jolie might now have her eye on a different role – as a politician.
The Oscar-winning star, 43, hinted she might run for US president as she took over yesterday’s BBC Radio 4’s Today programme as a guest editor. Appearing alongside presenter Justin Webb, she joked she had ‘no skeletons left in her closet’.
Her turn as guest editor saw the show focus on the refugee crisis and sexual violence against women overseas.
The actress has spent years dedicated to doing humanitarian work, particularly in the birth countries of her three adopted children – Vietnam, Cambodia and Ethiopia.
She launched her prevent sexual violence initiative after making Land of Blood And Honey in 2012, a film about the Bosnian conflict.
She admitted on the radio show that her years dealing with ‘governments and militaries’ had put her in a position where she could help people.
Journalist Webb asked her: ‘I’m not necessarily getting you to run for president on the programme but are you moving in a direction of politics?’
The star replied: ‘If you asked me 20 years ago I would’ve laughed. I really don’t know. I always say I’ll go where I’m needed. I don’t know if I’m fit for politics with…but then I’ve also joked that I don’t know if I have a skeleton left in my closet. ‘So I’m pretty open and out there. ‘I can take a lot on the chin so that’s good. But I honestly will do whatever I think can really make change.’
The star is now one of several celebrity names being discussed as possible presidential candidates for the Democrat party. Others include the likes of TV host Oprah Winfrey and rapper Kanye West.
Jolie laughed as Webb suggested she could be on the list of 30 to 40 Democrats running for the party’s presidential nomination – but refused to rule it out.
She simply said ‘thank you’ to the interviewer for his suggestion.
Jolie, a special envoy for UN refugee agency the UNHCR, said she had worked to help improve the lives of those living in unstable countries.
She said: ‘I’m also able to work with governments and I’m also able to work with militaries, and so I sit in a very interesting place of being able to get a lot done without a title and without it being about myself or my policies. ‘So for now I’ll sit quiet.’ She also discussed the difficulties of monitoring her children’s social media activities, highlighting that like ‘most parents’, she cannot control everything they are exposed to.
‘There are certain realities to teenagers and also our generation doesn’t understand half of what they are doing with their tech so they can get around us pretty easy,’ she said.
She added that none of her children have asked to join Facebook, and she herself is not a member.
‘We’re the last family that hasn’t gone on Facebook!’ she said.
Jolie is also working with the BBC on a new weekly children’s news programme, Our World, which will be piloted in the new year.
Chinese artist Ai Weiwei and Congolese gynaecologist Denis Mukwege – a Nobel Peace prize winner – were among those to feature in her radio programme. Previous guest editors have included Prince Harry, Lenny Henry and Richard Branson.
‘I’ll do whatever I think can make change’