Previous Maleficent movies have starred Elle Fanning as Aurora, Maleficent’s step-daughter, as well as Michelle Pfeiffer, Harris Dickinson, Ed Skrein, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Juno Temple, and more. In that same interview Jolie also hinted that she wants to quit acting for good – while revealing that she plans to leave ‘unhealthy’ Los Angeles and ‘spend more time’ in Cambodia.

Maleficent is the evil fairy in the classic 1959 animation Sleeping Beauty, with Angelina playing her in a 2014 live-action film. Just five years on, Jolie played her again in Mistress Of Evil, still wearing black horns, fighting fairies and sorting out her conflicted maternal feelings towards sweet Princess Aurora (Fanning). The original 2014 film grossed a whopping $758 million worldwide, and brought another successful addition to Disney’s series of dark fairy tales. The follow-up grossed $491.7 million. Being the entertainer that she is, when Jolie first landed the role in 2014, she used her scary costume to prank her kids. ‘I actually pranked my kids when I first did Maleficent and I scared one of my kids! And I’ll never do that again.’

‘I won’t say which kid it was but, I thought, when I had first put it on and they had never seen it, and I thought it would be fun to kind of, you know. But when you’re little, you don’t realize what mom means, to a kid,’ she shared in 2019. ‘I think that’s why Maleficent’s so scary, is because she’s a woman,’ she continued. ‘So it’s almost like a mom. Mom means so much and when mom transforms into something that’s like a demon, it had a really bad effect and I had to kind of peel it off and take everything off in front of my kids to say, “It’s me! Its me! It’s OK.”‘

Though she confirmed the upcoming role, Angelina hinted she’s ready to say goodbye to Hollywood in her new interview, where she discussed leaving the City of Angels for Cambodia, after ‘losing the ability to travel freely’ amid her bitter divorce battle with Brad Pitt.

The actress spoke out about her dislike of Hollywood in WSJ. Magazine’s new December/January issue, explaining that she believes it is a ‘shallow’ place, and admitting that she would likely never have become an actress if she was entering the industry today. She explained that she wants to move away as soon as she can to instead live in her home in Asia – but not until her ongoing legal battle with her ex finds a resolution. The pair started dating in 2005 and married in 2014, but split two years later, in 2016 – and since then, they have been embroiled in a lengthy, seven-year divorce proceeding over the custody of their six kids.

Angelina told WSJ. Magazine that the court battle has lead to her ‘losing the ability to live and travel freely.’ ‘It’s part of what happened after my divorce – I lost the ability to live and travel as freely,’ she said. ‘I will move when I can. I grew up in quite a shallow place. Of all the places in the world, Hollywood is not a healthy place. So you seek authenticity.’ Angelina – whose parents, Jon Voight and Marcheline Bertrand, were both actors themselves – added that because ‘she grew up around’ Hollywood, she was ‘never very impressed’ with it.

‘I never bought into it as significant or important,’ she told the publication. She admitted that if she were to start all over today, she likely wouldn’t choose acting as her profession, because of the ‘expectation’ to share intimate details about her personal life that comes with being a famous person. She added, ‘When I was starting out, it wasn’t as much of an expectation to be as public, to share so much.’ She also joked that she ‘doesn’t really have a social life’ anymore and that all of her ‘closest friends are refugees.’

The movie star has worked with the the UN Refugee Agency for more than two decades, visiting camps in Cambodia, Tanzania, Sierra Leone, and Pakistan over the years. Angelina has been embroiled in arguably one of the most public breakups of all time, with the entire world watching on as she and ex Brad, 59, have battled it out in court over the last seven years. She briefly spoke out about the dissolvement of her marriage of WSJ, while opening up about why she decided to step back from the spotlight in recent years. ‘We had to heal. There are things we needed to heal from,’ she explained, when the outlet pointed out that she’s only appeared in five movies over the course of her seven-year legal fight.

If Angelina does take a break from acting, that doesn’t mean she will stop working altogether, with the on-screen star sharing: ‘I can’t stop. I always think there’s a fight coming.’ Angelina and Brad first started dating in 2005, after meeting on set of the movie Mr. and Mrs. Smith. They tied the knot in August 2014 during a secret ceremony in the South of France, and welcomed three children together during their romance – Shiloh, now 17, in 2006, and twins Vivienne and Knox, now 15, in 2008. They also adopted two more, Zahara, now 18, and Pax, now 20, and Brad legally adopted the son that Angelina had adopted before they got together, Maddox, now 22.

But in 2016, it came to an explosive end after the pair got into an alleged physical altercation while on a private flight with their six kids. In May 2021, after years of duking it out in court, Brad and Angelina were officially granted joint custody of their six kids – but one month later, the judge’s decision was thrown out. Since they split, the two stars have also been fighting in court over the winery that they once owned together.