Angelina Jolie reveals how she avoids an ‘empty life’

There’s a good reason Angelina Jolie never seems to slow down. The Oscar winner does everything she can to make herself useful in order to avoid living an “empty life.”

“You have your creative, and you have your work, and every day of your life is going to be about somehow growing as a person,” Jolie, 42, told Deadline Hollywoodon Wednesday, February 21. “Somehow feeling you can contribute to the extent that you can get tribute.”

The mother of six — she shares Maddox, 16, Pax, 14, Zahara, 13, Shiloh, 11, and twins Knox and Vivienne, 9, with ex Brad Pitt — believes that all people are trying to find balance.

“I think to be a balanced person, you have to find those things that you just purely enjoy. But, of course, if you aren’t participating in the bigger picture of life, and in being somehow useful, and you aren’t doing something and growing, then really, you’ll find you’re not very happy,” revealed the By the Sea actress. “Really, you’ll have quite an empty life.”

But Jolie doesn’t have to worry about that. In addition to her humanitarian work, Jolie is currently a visiting professor at the London School Economics and Political Science. On Monday, February 19, she taught a seminar called “Women, Peace, and Security.” The lecture focused on human rights violations against women in conflict and their links to gender inequality. Later, she took questions from students!

Jolie taught her first class at the prestigious London-based school in March 2017. “I’m a little nervous, feeling butterflies,” she told The Evening Standard at the time. “I hope I do well. This is very important to me.”