Topics: Academy Awards, Angelina Jolie, Celebrity, Film and TV, Hollywood, Oscars, Parenting
Angelina Jolie has opened up about winning an Academy Award and why she 'gave' the prize to her mom.
The Maria star is daughter to actors Marcheline Bertrand and Jon Voight. The pair married in 1971, but separated in 1976 after Voight's infidelity came to light. They later divorced in 1980.
Jolie lived primarily with her mom growing up, and winning an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress was a particularly poignant moment for both her and her mother.
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Jolie won the award for her role in psychological thriller Girl, Interrupted (1999), playing the role of diagnosed sociopath Lisa Rowe.
During Santa Barbara International Film Festival 2025, Jolie was asked about her experience being nominated - and then winning - the Academy Award.
Noting she was debating how much to 'share' with the audience, Jolie opened up about her parents and how her career paralleled with her mom's own dreams.
She explained: "When I was little, my parents divorced. My mom was home with two little kids. My mom's dream was to be an actor. I believe my mother’s mother’s dream was to be an actor, which is probably why she took her to the theater in Chicago all the time.
"And my mother used to tell me a story that when she was in her twenties - when she had me, she was very young - she was divorced to a very famous man [...] and she was home with her babies in an apartment watching him win an Oscar with the other woman."
Indeed, Voight is reported as having had an affair with fellow actor Stacey Pickren.
Pickren starred alongside him in three movies including Coming Home, Lookin' To Get Out, and Runaway Train, Voight went on to win the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in Coming Home in 1978.
Jolie reflected on the affair and Voight's win as 'kind of just a part of [her] family history', but explained the significance of her mom being 'there' for her and her brother, and that being 'the choice she made' stuck with her.
"And how she must have felt on that night always really stuck with me," she added.
Jolie resolved: "So, to have that moment to get off that stage and call her and say, 'It's yours' and I gave it to her, was like one of the best moments for me in my life."
