It seems like more celebrities than ever before are getting heavily involved in politics, especially as we barrel toward the 2020 presidential election. The latest celebrity to offer to comment on whether they’d run for political office was Angelina Jolie, who included those comments in a Thursday morning radio interview with the BBC. Considering Jolie is not only an actor but also an activist and United Nations high commissioner for refugees special envoy, it makes sense she’d be asked. With that in mind, her answer on whether a move into politics is on her mind may surprise you.
In the BBC interview, Jolie revealed, “Honestly, if you asked me 20 years ago, I would’ve laughed, and I really don’t know. I always say I’ll go where I am needed. I don’t know if I’m fit for politics, but then I’ve also joked 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.”
Jolie’s work with the U.N. focuses on refugees as well as sexual violence. Since 2012, she has poured tons of work into her global initiative, “Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict,” with former U.K. Foreign Secretary William Hague.
She told the BBC, “I honestly will do whatever I think can really make change, and right now, I am able to work with a U.N. agency that is the most in the field of all the U.N. agencies to do a lot of work directly with the people in need. 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 stay quiet.”
So, perhaps Jolie won’t be running for office anytime soon, but it sounds like she hasn’t totally ruled it out. In the meantime, Jolie has several projects on her plate, including the upcoming Disney sequel Maleficent 2, the Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan fusion film Come Away and the BBC current affairs show for kids, Our World, which Deadline reports she will executive produce. The series will work to promote global literacy.
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