In 2019, Angelina Jolie spends much of her spotlight time discussing how world leaders can better protect refugees, pushing for global reform with regard to women’s education and health care and more recently, promoting her new “Maleficent” sequel. For its December issue, however, Harper’s Bazaar revisits another key part of Angelina’s life: her “wild at heart” qualities. “I have a tattoo, ” says the 44-year-old mother of six at one point. “‘A prayer for the wild at heart kept in cages.’ I got it when I was 20.” She goes on to reflect on an evening spent with her mom, Marcheline Bertrand, when Angelina “was feeling lost … restless,” noting that she still feels that way. “We were driving to dinner, and she talked about spending time with Tennessee Williams and how much she loved his words. She told me he wrote that, about the wild at heart. We drove to a tattoo parlor, and I got it inked on my left arm. What she did for me that night was to remind me that the wild within me is alright and a part of me,” Angelina recalled. Later in the interview, she returns to that idea and delves into how it’s affected her as a mother and as an adult. “The part of us that is free, wild, open, curious can get shut down by life. By pain or by harm,” she says. “My children know my true self, and they have helped me to find it again and to embrace it. They have been through a lot. I learn from their strength. As parents, we encourage our kids to embrace all that they are, and all that they know in their hearts to be right, and they look back at us and want the same for us.”
