Angelina Jolie is remembering her late mom, Marcheline Bertrand.
The Oscar winner, 49, shared memories of her mother while accepting the Maltin Modern Master Award at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival in California on Wednesday, February 5.
“I think of my mother … she had to give up her dreams of a creative life but she embraced that side of mine,” Jolie said, referring to Bertrand, who was also an actress. (Bertrand died at the age of 56 in January 2007 after battling breast and ovarian cancer.)
Jolie noted that while she was alive, her mom would write letters to the characters Jolie played in movies.
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“‘Dear Gia,’ ‘Dear Lisa Rowe,’ ‘Dear Lara Croft’ — and for the last 16 years, I haven’t had those letters,” Jolie said, per footage shared via X by The Hollywood Reporter.
Speaking about her latest role as opera singer Maria Callas, she continued, “I try to imagine sometimes what she would write, and she would probably have told Maria that she loved her because Maria had many things but she never had a mother’s love.”
A teary Jolie went on, “I would be absolutely nothing without mine. She passed away many years ago at this time of year, so it’s always this weather that reminds me of her”
“And that feeling and that sensibility that makes that actually hard for me is part of what is my work and what connects many artists to their work, and I know I’m not alone in this,” the actress added.
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Jolie previously paid tribute to her mom in December at the Gotham Awards in New York City, where she accepted the Performer Tribute Award for playing Callas.
“I grew up with a mother who kept books inside the oven because there were more books in our house than shelves in the apartment we had,” Jolie shared at the 2024 Gotham Awards, which Us Weekly attended. “And it was how she solved the problem, while still making sure we were fed. But it was her priority.”
“[My mom] took me to the theater. She told me about meeting Tennessee Williams, and she introduced me to the Lee Strasberg Institute, where I would later study,” Jolie shared. “And I now experience the joy of seeing my own daughter love theater and get involved,” she added, referring to daughter Vivienne, 16, who helped Jolie produce The Outsiders Broadway musical. (Jolie also shares sons Maddox, 23, Pax, 20, and Knox, 16, and daughters Zahara, 19, and Shiloh, 18, with ex Brad Pitt.)
