Angelina Jolie Reveals Her Kids Are Learning 7 Languages: They Don’t ‘Want To Be Actors’

Angelina Jolie’s kids seem
to have inherited her worldly ambitions.

During a candid guest
editor appearance on BBC Radio 4‘s “Women’s Hour” on Friday, the filmmaker
and Oscar-winning actress said her and husband Brad Pitt’s six children have
already taken on second – and even third! – languages.

“All the kids are
learning different languages,” Angelina said of Maddox, 14, Pax, 12, Zahara,
11, Shiloh, 10, and 7-year-old twins Vivienne and Knox – also revealing a few
of the youngsters’ nicknames. 

“I asked them what
languages they wanted to learn and Shi is learning Khmai, which is a Cambodian
language, Pax is focusing on Vietnamese, Mad has taken to German and Russian, Z
is speaking French, Vivienne really wanted to learn Arabic, and Knox is
learning sign language,” she explained.

While Angelina’s brood is clearly taking on their
mother’s global perspective, they aren’t necessarily looking to follow in her
or Brad’s Hollywood footsteps. 

PHOTOS: Hollywood Moms & Their Kids 

“None of my kids
want to be actors, thank God,” the 41-year-old said, adding that their artistic curiosity
is directed more toward off-camera endeavors.

“They are actually
very interested in being musicians,” she added. “I think
they like the process of film from the outside. Mad is interested in editing.
Pax loves music and deejaying.” 

Angelina also spoke at
length about her role as a Special Envoy for the United Nations, touching
specifically upon the plight facing millions of pregnant refugees across the
world and the personal insight she experienced after giving birth to Shiloh in
Africa.

“It’s
so hard to speak of, it’s the worst possible situation,” she said. “You
hope you would have a midwife but many poor people have complications – ones
that could be easily solved. I was in Namibia having my daughter, I was in
breech and I knew I was in breech because I could have an ultrasound, but many
women can’t have one.”

The conversation took an especially emotional turn as she also reflected upon the double mastectomy she had in 2013 after learning she carried the “faulty” BRCA1 gene that poses a high risk for breast and ovarian cancer. Her own mother, Marcheline Bertrand, passed away in 2007 following an eight-year battle with the illnesses, and Angelina explained why even having the choice to undergo the preventive operation is something she values deeply. 

“When you go
through something and you learn about yourself and your body in anything
medical, you feel – it really wasn’t a decision,” she said. “It was
just, I thought that I had gained information that I wish my mother would have
known. I wish she had the option. I wish she had the surgery, in fact, and it
might have given her more years with my family.” 

Angelina spoke out about the surgery in an open letter
to The New York Times, and said the public discourse that followed gives her
hope that other women may have been inspired to take a closer look at their own
health.  

“It means a great
deal to me,” Angelina said. “If there is even one woman out there who
went and got checked and found that she had cancer or she was positive and she
caught something in time, and if in any small way I was a part of that, it
makes me very emotional.” 

— Erin Biglow