Angelina Jolie dropped Maddox off at university in South Korea last week. (I’m still not over the fact that Maddox is now off to college. Why are we so old?). She couldn’t linger though because she had to go back to work. Angelina showed up at D23 to promote two projects this weekend – we’ll get to that in a minute – and she was asked about her oldest child leaving the house. She joked that she ugly-cried, like the kind of ugly cry where you embarrass your kids. The interview is below and you’ll note the part where she talks about waving goodbye to Maddox at the airport – it’s quick, but she mumbles something about it being the first time in her life she looked back, and she did it like six times as she was leaving but to me, it says something about who she is: Angelina Jolie doesn’t look back. Her children are the exception, but for the most part, as we’ve seen over the years, she’s all about forward motion. You can read into that in all the ways:

Back to the work though and her appearance at D23 for two major projects: Marvel’s The Eternals and the upcoming Maleficent sequel. As I’ve been saying the last six months, ever since Angelina was initially rumoured for Eternals, she got Disney in the divorce. Disney is basically eating Hollywood and she’s clearly a valuable asset to the Disney game plan. 

Angelina joined other members of the Eternals team to announce the addition of new cast members, like Kit Harington, which she says she had no idea about until she was on stage, because that’s how Marvel works, and to present an early look at the concept art: 


 I am already obsessed with Angelina as Thena: 

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How long has it been since Angelina’s been blonde? It’s been a while. I love the look of her as a blonde Thena. Maybe Thena is blonde to begin with in the comics but I wouldn’t know. All I know and will ever know is Angelina’s Thena and I’m feeling her blondeness, hard. I’m feeling her all over, actually. She’s hotter right now than we’ve seen in years. Maybe it’s all the training, as she told E! News:

"I'm like everybody and... especially these last few years haven't been the easiest, and I haven't felt very strong. There's something when you're not feeling very strong, where you push yourself. And I'm so grateful that I have the opportunity to play these kind of characters, that pull out every bit of strength I have and that remind me that I can be strong."

Everybody knows that when you’re part of the MCU, half of it is spent at the gym. We might be starting to see the results of that already. Did you see her latest Mon Guerlain ad? This was shot at her home in Cambodia and it’s set to “Wild Thing”, which was written by Chip Taylor, her uncle. Jon Voight is his brother.

This is Angelina the Maleficent, wild again. She’s been sophisticated and elegant for over a decade. She seems to be, with Maleficent and Marvel and Mon Guerlain, returning to her sexiness, or perhaps it’s more accurate to say she’s reclaiming it, re-imagining it, as she approaches her mid-to-late 40s, now single, and when asked what’s the craziest thing she’s ever done, her answer:

“I hope I’m yet to do it.”

She looks ready, doesn’t she? Look at her in this ad though. She’s ready. Holy sh-t that face, that expression, those eyes, those lips – it’s unreal. 

 

So a new era of Angelina Jolie is upon us. What do we call it? Angelina v 4.0? Version 1 was everything pre-Maddox, the wild child of the industry. Version 2 was her activism awakened, right up to Brad Pitt. Version 3 was Brad and the expansion of their family, Mother Angelina. Version 4 is now and ahead, activist, mother, and badass all at the same time.