No more Angelina Jolie in Hollywood

She's an iconic face in Hollywood and has been for two decades: Angelina Jolie. In a shocking statement, however, the actress announced that she is walking away from filmmaking. You will probably find her more often in Cambodia than in California.

The daughter of actors Jon Voight and Marcheline Bertrand, who began her career at a very young age, no longer wants her life to be so publicly exposed. This is the reason she has decided to retire.

"I wouldn't become an actress today," she said. Life has become much less private for stars these days, with social media and the intense following of the stars during their daily lives. "When I was starting out, it wasn’t as much of an expectation to be as public, to share so much."

"I grew up in quite a shallow place," Jolie said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. "Of all the places in the world, Hollywood is not a healthy place. So you seek authenticity."

Jolie has left an indelible mark on Hollywood, thanks to films such as 'Girl, Interrupted' (1999), 'Mr. & Mrs. Smith' (2005) and the 'Lara Croft: Tomb Raider' and 'Maleficent' sagas.

Now, the only thing the 48-year-old actress wants to do is to complete the work commitments she already made. They include voice acting Tigress in 'Kung-Fu Panda 4'; finishing the post-production of 'Without Blood', a film that she directed and in which Salma Hayek acts, and making the third installment of 'Maleficent'.

While she made millions in the industry, enabling her to retire before turning 50, fame has also cost her. Hollywood gave her worldwide recognition for which she had to pay by losing her privacy.

Above all, her life came under public scrutiny when she began her relationship with Brad Pitt. They had six children and separated seven years ago.

The process of separating from a Hollywood star and raising six children, all the while being followed by the press, has been a lot of exposure and pressure for her. Angelina Jolie says it has even affected her health.

Her stress reached such high levels that, when she filmed 'Maleficent: Mistress of Evil' in 2018, her voice sounded different from the first time she played the villain.

"My body reacts very strongly to stress," she told The Wall Street Journal. "My blood sugar goes up and down. I suddenly had Bell’s palsy six months before my divorce."

She also revealed that her social life in Los Angeles is almost non-existent, because she cannot go to any public places without being followed.

"It’s part of what happened after my divorce," she says. "I lost the ability to live and travel as freely." Being a separated woman made her more interesting to the gossip industry. But now, she predicts, "I will move when I can."

Her idea is to leave Los Angeles and spend more time with her family at their home in Cambodia. Even before making this radical decision, the actress already kept her public exposure to a minimum and worked on fewer projects.

Around the time of the divorce, she says, she was "only taking jobs that didn’t require long shoots. Why? We had a lot of healing to do. We’re still finding our footing."

It's unlikely that she will sit still from now on. Jolie will focus on other projects, such as her fashion company, in which she focuses on sustainability and support of emerging designers and artisans. Her goal is to contribute to the democratization of the fashion industry.

She is making clear that, from now on, she will only pay attention to what is important. She already began ignoring the things published about her. As she told The Wall Street Journal: "I've just been around so long, and everything's been said."