20 Hot Celebrities - Angelina Jolie

Angelina Jolie is intrigue. The gaze of her eyes command attention, and the twinkle they hide cause everyone who sees Jolie to look harder. There are very few actors who match her beauty - it is entirely unique. There are very few actors who match her intrigue - from her starring roles down to the smallest roles she's performed, audiences wonder 'Who's that girl?'. There are very few actors who match her controversey - her speech at the Oscars thanking her brother launched rumors abound of their "romantic involvement." But most importantly, there are very few actors who match Angelina Jolie's raw talent. Three Golden Globes, one Oscar, and she's not even thirty yet.

Angelina Jolie is intrigue. The gaze of her eyes command attention, and the twinkle they hide cause everyone who sees Jolie to look harder. There are very few actors who match her beauty - it is entirely unique. There are very few actors who match her intrigue - from her starring roles down to the smallest roles she's performed, audiences wonder 'Who's that girl?'. There are very few actors who match her controversey - her speech at the Oscars thanking her brother launched rumors abound of their "romantic involvement." But most importantly, there are very few actors who match Angelina Jolie's raw talent. Three Golden Globes, one Oscar, and she's not even thirty yet.

By age 16, Angelina moved out on her own and began modeling. She grabbed a few spots, and also had parts in music videos, most notably the Rolling Stones. She began film studies at the New York University (also where Adam Sandler had just graduated). She soon gave up on school and began working with the Met Theatre Group in Los Angeles. Angelina was not yet certain that acting was what she wanted out of life, but she definitely thought it sparked an interest. "I loved some kind of expression ... I'm very good at trying to explore different emotions and listen to people and feel things. That is an actor, I think."

By 1993, Angelina had decided to pursue acting full time. A forgetable first role in Cyborg II: Glass Shadow followed, but soon thereafter Angelina nabbed a role in Hackers, alongside Matthew Lillard and Jonny Lee Miller. The film got good reviews for Angelina, but incredibly bad reviews for the film. Regardless, Angelina got her first husband. She and Jonny Lee hit it off, and they married soon after. The wedding had Angelina wearing leather pants and a white t-shirt with her husband's name written in blood on her back. But, blood apparently wasn't thicker than water. Within a year, the two were separated, but their divorce wasn't finalized until 2000.

A slew of underappreciated and impressive roles followed, most notably in the Joyce Carol Oates adaptation of Foxfire, a film about females rising up to the taunts and repression of their peers.

But then came George Wallace. Gary Sinise played a large role in the film which received a great deal of critical acclaim, as did Angelina. A Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress and an Emmy nomination later, and Angelina was suddenly the talk of the town. But it was her starring role in HBO's Gia (based on the life of model Gia Carangi) that skyrocketed her to success. The film was a huge hit, both with audiences and critics alike. Another Golden Globe, this for Best Actress, followed, as well as another Emmy nomination.

Pushing Tin, The Bone Collector, and Playing By Heart followed each receiving mixed reviews, but all coming back with one thing in common : Angelina was excellent. She carried both Pushing Tin and The Bone Collector, and her and Ryan Phillippe were simply captivating in Playing By Heart. But, it was Girl, Interrupted, a film that was supposed to relaunch Winona Ryder, that in fact catapulted Angelina into superstardom. She won an Oscar, stole the film out from under Winona, and was quickly established as the actress in Hollywood.

But with fame, also comes the scrutiny of the public eye. Her devotion to her brother lead to ludicrous rumors of romantic involvement which undermined everything beautiful about her relationship with her brother (James Haven). Then, she married actor Billy Bob Thorton (formerly involved with Laura Dern) after an alleged mental institution stay.

Regardless, there are very few actors who command the attention, respect, and awe of entire audiences. Angelina is an actress for the ages, and personal problems or not, one of the most interesting and real actors in Hollywood.

"Because I am a bad girl, people always automatically think that I am a bad girl. Or that I carry a dark secret with me or that I'm obsessed with death. The truth is that I am probably the least morbid person one can meet. If I think more about death than some other people, it is probably because I love life more than they do."

(On if she ever caught her husband Billy Bob Thornton cheating) "I've told Billy if I ever caught him cheating, I wouldn't kill him because I love his children and they need a dad. But I would beat him up. I know where all of his sports injuries are. And I'd beat her, too!"

"I'll make it real simple, I'm a 36-C. In the game, she's a double-D. In the movie, she's a D. We split the difference...[the movie Croft] is much more athletic, and she has smaller breasts, but she's still Lara Croft, so there."

"I seem to be getting a lot of things pushed my way that are strong women. It's like people see Hackers and they send me offers to play tough women with guns, the kind who wear no bra and a little tank top. I'd like to play strong women who are also very feminine."

"I'd like to believe that the people that have supported me in my work or identified with me in films, the people that feel they know me, they do and they don't have misconceptions - they understand. I believe that."

"I'm angry. I'm sad. It's a very difficult and sad time. It was a real deep connection, a deep marriage, so it's not that simple to say this or that one thing caused the problems. It's clear to me that our priorities shifted overnight. He's focused on his music and career. I'm focused on my baby. It comes down to what's important to you." - on her split from husband Billy Bob Thornton

"There's something about death that is comforting. The thought that you could die tommorrow frees you to appreciate life now." - People Magazine 8 July 1996

"I felt that if I lived at that time, with the dangers she had and the threats she had and the lack of power she had as a woman, I would not have been that different from her. And I thought I also just saw her as a mother who really would push her son at a time that if he didn't get the throne, he didn't acquire a certain kind of strength and ability and greatness, he would probably just die or be killed or be exiled. So out of concern, out of love for your own, just to come from this place that seems very much like the horrible mafia father, but in fact it was for his own survival that she was focused on, which made it very easy for me to focus on thinking of my own son and what he had to do to protect himself from bad things that could hurt him." - on playing Olympias in Alexander (2004).

"If you don't get out of the box you've been raised in, you won't understand how much bigger the world is."

On the superficiality of the industry: "We are setting an example of what we think is beautiful and you really want to put that much make up on me?"

"You might never find out that you are useful for all the right reasons - and not all those stupid things that people tell you you're useful for."

"My role as goodwill ambassador has made my work as a film star relatively dull. I can't find anything that interests me enough to go back to work. I'm simply not excited about anything. I'm not excited about going to a film set." (CNN International Edition 29th January, 2005)