From CNN
From ABC News
Angelina Jolie and More Stars Who've Tried to Retire
Angelina Jolie claims she's almost ready to retire from acting. "If it went away tomorrow, I would be very happy to be home with the children," she said in an interview with Britain's Channel 4 News. "I think I'm going to have to give up the acting as the kids hit the teenage years, anyway, too much to manage at home."
It's not the first time Lara Croft has threatened to ditch her guns -- in 2010, Jolie told Vanity Fair she probably wouldn't be in business for much longer -- but it's hard to believe her retirement will last. She'll have to break it for "Maleficent," the movie she's currently working on, when it premieres in March 2014, after the 13th birthday of her eldest son, Maddox.
Jolie's soon-to-be husband, Brad Pitt, has also said he plans to stop acting in a few years, but historically, superstars don't stay retired:
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Michael Jordan
The basketball icon's 1993 retirement didn't stick. He returned to the game in 1995 after a lackluster stint in baseball with the Chicago White Sox, and led the Bulls to three more consecutive NBA championships in 1996, 1997 and 1998. He retired for a second time in 1999. These days, Jordan's most often found swinging clubs on the golf course -- that is, when he's not getting kicked out because of his cargo shorts.
Jay-Z
Jigga Man's likened himself to Michael Jordan in more than a few songs, and with good reason -- both are among the best in their fields, and both can't stay away. Jay-Z said he was retiring from rap with 2003's "Black Album." In 2006, he announced he was recording a new album and told Entertainment Weekly his attempt to get out of rap was "the worst retirement in history."
He just headlined eight shows at Brooklyn's new Barclay's Center in New York and delighted elderly subway riders in the process. It doesn't look like he's going anywhere anytime soon.
Alec Baldwin
Time's ticking for Baldwin. In 2009, the "30 Rock" star told Playboy he'd give up acting in 2012, when his NBC sitcom wrapped. "In March 2012, I'll wake up and say, 'What am I going to do now? Am I done?'" he said. "I think I will be done. I may finish a play or something, but I'm retiring at the wrap party."
Since that interview, he's reiterated that he plans to get out of the game, but he also took on roles in "Rock of Ages" and Woody Allen's "To Rome with Love." If he's really looking for a new challenge, he could take on Donald Trump for Most Prolific Twitter Ranter.
Clint Eastwood
In 2008, the legendary actor-director said "Gran Torino" would be his last starring role, but he'd continue working behind the camera as a director. He broke his pact with this year's "Trouble with the Curve," which he directed and starred in alongside Amy Adams and John Goodman. He also stole the show at this year's Republican National Convention, though he may not want that on his resume. (Remember his conversation with the empty chair?)
Barbra Streisand
Streisand threw in her touring mic in 2000 with a "farewell" concert. "It feels like time to say goodbye to this part of my life," she told the sold-out crowd at Madison Square Garden.
Or ... not. Six years later, she was back on a comeback tour, and this year, she embarked on the "Barbra Live" set of concerts, which kicked off at the Barclays Center in her native Brooklyn, N.Y.
From Movieline
If Angelina Jolie Is Talking Retirement, What's She Been Doing Since 2011?
Angelina Jolie says she's thinking about giving up acting to be a stay-at-home mom, but hasn't she been semi-retired for a while now? Jolie, who can generate headlines simply by pursing her pillow lips a certain way, started the Internet buzzing when she told Britain's Channel 4 News (via the Huffington Post): "I think I'm going to have to give up the acting as the kids hit the teenage years...too much to manage at home."
Jolie also told the British broadcast concern that if her acting career "went away tomorrow I would be very happy to be home with the children." But after looking at her work schedule as of late, I can't help but think that she's already begun saying her goodbyes.
Her last films were released in 2011 and, technically speaking, she didn't appear in either of them: She wrote and directed In The Land of Blood and Honey, and she was the voice of Tigress in Kung Fu Panda 2. In other words, she was last seen onscreen in the flesh in 2010.
Yes, she's currently shooting Maleficent (and her four-year-old daughter Vivienne Jolie-Pitt reportedly has a minor role in it), but that doesn't hit screens until 2014. She's also rumored to be talking Tigress again in Kung Fu Panda 3, but that isn't expected out until 2016.
According to IMDb, she's also working on a project with La Femme Nikita filmmaker Luc Besson slated for 2013, and that Cleopatra and, sadly, Salt 2 may be in the works, but those projects are more tentative.
If Jolie does follow through on her intent to retire when her kids hit their teens, she doesn't have a lot of time for smoldering close-ups. The eldest of her six kids, Maddox is 11, and if you've read any Bret Easton Ellis, you know that the kids of Hollywood royalty grow up faster than their civilian counterparts.
The good news is that, with her marriage to Brad Pitt in the works, Jolie won't have to worry about fading from the public's short-term memory if she does retire from the screen for a while. She's one of those rare actresses whose life makes a more interesting tale than some of the movie choices she's made. Unless she follows in the footsteps of Brigitte Bardot, the camera will always love her.
A bit harsh and exaggerated but valid central thought.
From The Guardian
Angelina Jolie should retire with a bang – not a lecture
If
the Maleficent star is to bow out in style she'll need to steer a
course between the vapid action fluff and middlebrow issue movies she's
favoured lately
Dropping the act … Angelina Jolie at the Sarajevo film festival in July. Photo: Reuters
Angelina Jolie has always tried to use her celebrity to draw attention to humanitarian causes. So, following her recent Channel 4 News interview alongside William Hague
to discuss warzone sexual assaults in her capacity as a UN special
envoy, all the headlines were naturally about when she's going to stop
being in films.
And the answer is apparently quite soon. Upsettingly for fans of her work, and for fans of errant red carpet leg-juts, Jolie already has the finishing line in her sights. "I think I'm going to have to give up acting as the kids hit the teenage years because there is going to be too much to manage at home," she said. Given that her oldest son Maddox is now 11, that means Angelina's retirement could be as soon as two years away. If IMDb is right – which, admittedly, could well be a first – then her last role could well be as the Tigress in Kung Fu Panda 3.
Hopefully it won't play out exactly like that, though. Hopefully with a retirement as meticulously planned as this, Angelina Jolie will manage to bow out in a slightly less ignominious manner, with a film that manages to perfectly pull together all of her different acting skillsets. And that film will be incredibly hard to find, because for the last decade or so, Kung Fu Panda aside, she's ping-ponged schizophrenically between two very distinct types of fare.
The first of these, and probably the most financially successful, has been the slightly undercooked blockbuster. These are the films where Angelina, either desperate or unable to let go of Lara Croft, has been happy to grimace and growl and leap about with guns to the sort of bombastic dance music that angry teenage boys stopped listening to in the late 90s. In this category are Gone in 60 Seconds, Wanted, Salt and Mr and Mrs Smith – all mildly diverting films that appear to have been designed to be as instantly forgettable as possible.
The other string to Jolie's bow has been worthy Oscar-bait. She made a Clint Eastwood film, Changeling, back before Clint Eastwood started talking to chairs, when he could win an Oscar if he filmed a cat falling off a shelf. She starred in The Good Shepherd and A Mighty Heart, both so unremittingly serious and self-important that watching them all the way through technically constituted self-harm. And then there was her directoral debut In the Land of Blood and Honey, which once again substituted storytelling for jackhammer moralising.
Somewhere along the line, though, the middle fell out of Jolie's film choices. It's now either hopelessly dumb, borderline-direct-to-DVD action fluff or aggressively middlebrow issue cinema that alienates most mass audiences. There's nothing of the sparky character work Angelina used to excel at in Girl, Interrupted or Hackers or even, to a lesser extent, Pushing Tin. To be fair, Maleficent could move Jolie's career into an interesting new area, but it's a live-action fairytale movie that's coming out two years after everyone stopped liking live-action fairytales, so nobody should get their hopes up just yet.
If she really is going to retire in the next few years, Angelina Jolie will want to go out with a bang. She's one of the most famous movie stars in the world, and she'll want to remind us of what we're missing without her. If she can find the sweet spot between hollow entertainment and endless lecturing, she might just do it on a high.
And the answer is apparently quite soon. Upsettingly for fans of her work, and for fans of errant red carpet leg-juts, Jolie already has the finishing line in her sights. "I think I'm going to have to give up acting as the kids hit the teenage years because there is going to be too much to manage at home," she said. Given that her oldest son Maddox is now 11, that means Angelina's retirement could be as soon as two years away. If IMDb is right – which, admittedly, could well be a first – then her last role could well be as the Tigress in Kung Fu Panda 3.
Hopefully it won't play out exactly like that, though. Hopefully with a retirement as meticulously planned as this, Angelina Jolie will manage to bow out in a slightly less ignominious manner, with a film that manages to perfectly pull together all of her different acting skillsets. And that film will be incredibly hard to find, because for the last decade or so, Kung Fu Panda aside, she's ping-ponged schizophrenically between two very distinct types of fare.
The first of these, and probably the most financially successful, has been the slightly undercooked blockbuster. These are the films where Angelina, either desperate or unable to let go of Lara Croft, has been happy to grimace and growl and leap about with guns to the sort of bombastic dance music that angry teenage boys stopped listening to in the late 90s. In this category are Gone in 60 Seconds, Wanted, Salt and Mr and Mrs Smith – all mildly diverting films that appear to have been designed to be as instantly forgettable as possible.
The other string to Jolie's bow has been worthy Oscar-bait. She made a Clint Eastwood film, Changeling, back before Clint Eastwood started talking to chairs, when he could win an Oscar if he filmed a cat falling off a shelf. She starred in The Good Shepherd and A Mighty Heart, both so unremittingly serious and self-important that watching them all the way through technically constituted self-harm. And then there was her directoral debut In the Land of Blood and Honey, which once again substituted storytelling for jackhammer moralising.
Somewhere along the line, though, the middle fell out of Jolie's film choices. It's now either hopelessly dumb, borderline-direct-to-DVD action fluff or aggressively middlebrow issue cinema that alienates most mass audiences. There's nothing of the sparky character work Angelina used to excel at in Girl, Interrupted or Hackers or even, to a lesser extent, Pushing Tin. To be fair, Maleficent could move Jolie's career into an interesting new area, but it's a live-action fairytale movie that's coming out two years after everyone stopped liking live-action fairytales, so nobody should get their hopes up just yet.
If she really is going to retire in the next few years, Angelina Jolie will want to go out with a bang. She's one of the most famous movie stars in the world, and she'll want to remind us of what we're missing without her. If she can find the sweet spot between hollow entertainment and endless lecturing, she might just do it on a high.
