A couple weeks ago Angelina Jolie told the Daily Mail that she keeps guns in the house and that she would shoot anyone who tried to hurt her family. It’s a real concern for her as someone with small children who’s had a past break in and is followed by paparazzi wherever she goes. I chose not to cover that story, though, because a lot of you have expressed Angelina burnout and it really doesn’t matter what we say about her, or even if we’re writing about someone else – she incites a strange kind of a fanaticism among some who will rant about her on one hand while saying they don’t want to read anything about her. With a heated subject like guns it would have been worse.

There’s little avoiding her most recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, though. It’s so candid and open I was shaking my head in disbelief while I was reading it. She gets asked about the most controversial topics in her well-documented life and she answers without mincing words or using a long explanation that she’s not going to answer, as a lot of celebrities do to protect their privacy. She talks about her past, her family, and her relationship with Brad.

Angelina says that when people express strong dislike or admiration for her she takes it as a sign that she’s making the right decisions in life. There’s nothing she’s said in an interview that she regrets, and she says that she’s shared her past so that she can help others going through the same thing.

In many ways you’re a very polarizing figure. People either worship you or they can’t stand you. Have you thought about why that is?
I’d like to think it’s because I’m not neither here nor there in my life. I think anybody that makes a decision about where they stand is going to cause strong opinions about them. But I think that’s what you should be hoping for in life, so I take that as a very good sign. That some people support me and some people really don’t like me tells me that I’m making decisions and I’m standing strong for something I believe in. I’m making choices in life. And that’s the right thing to do.

Some people can’t reconcile your old persona, where you talked about knives and cutting, with your more recent identity as a mother and activist.
But again, it’s not that different. The reason I talked about going through certain pains or even cutting myself is that I was already out the other side. I knew there were people that do that — and somehow are happy that somebody admitted they did and discussed how they got out of it. I don’t see the point of doing an interview unless you’re going to share the things you learn in life and the mistakes you make. So to admit that I’m extremely human and have done some dark things, I don’t think makes me unusual or unusually dark. I think it actually is the right thing to do and I’d like to think it’s the nice thing to do.

Is there anything you’ve said that you wish you hadn’t? Like all that business about wearing the vial of Billy Bob Thornton’s blood around your neck when you two were married?
No! It was never a vial anyway. It was like a flower press. It was like from a slight cut on your finger and you press your fingerprint in. It was kind of a sweet gesture. I thought it was kind of romantic! I still love him dearly and think the world of him and I’m proud to have been his wife for a time. I don’t believe in regrets. It’s a dangerous habit to get into — it makes you pause in your life if you start thinking back and questioning yourself.

[From Entertainment Weekly]

Angelina also talked about her relationship with Brad, pregnancy sex, and how they spend time with their children:

You don’t think you’re kind?
I kind of like to debate. I like to get into fights.

Would you say you’re drawn to extremes?
I think so, yeah. We joke about that at home a lot, because we walk in different worlds together, Brad and I. We joke about the extremes of the things we’ll do.

Like what?
Well, certain things are private! But there’s a side of us that’s so mommy-daddy and then there’s a side of us that’s…very man and woman. I’ll leave it at that. We both like to ride motorcycles, we both like to fly planes, that’s the spirited side of us. Then the other side of us is very focused on silly mommy-daddy things. So I guess that’s extremes, but I just think of that as balance.

What would you say are the best and worst things about being pregnant?
t’s all just so nice. You just really can’t complain about anything as long as you know the babies are looking healthy. The only thing that’s hard for me now is with twins and having four kids, there’s a lot of the doctor saying ”Stop picking them up as much.” But we’ve worked out a system where Brad just lifts them to me every time they want to come up. I just don’t bend down. I’ll scream, ”Honey!” and he’ll come running and lift them up. Or they climb on chairs, so it’s not as big of a lift. So we’re trying to follow doctor’s orders, but I’m bending them a tiny bit.

I’ve heard people say it’s bad for the sex life.
No, I think it’s quite the opposite. It’s great for the sex life. It just makes you a lot more creative. So you have fun, and as a woman you’re just so round and full.

Pretty soon you’ll have six kids all under the age of 8. Have you thought about how you’re physically going to be able to handle that?
Well, we weren’t expecting twins! So it did shock us, and we jumped to six quickly. But we like a challenge. We really don’t know. His mom and dad are on standby to come out and help. And fortunately we can hire help if we need it, but we’re going to try as we usually do to balance it as well as we can. The only thing for us when a new child comes home is just balancing the others. Our real focus now is: How do we make sure that the babies’ coming is not upsetting to other kids and makes them feel included. They’re old enough to feel included to change diapers themselves, to feed bottles themselves, like if I pump into a bottle. We’re trying to find ways where it can be a fun group thing. But the hard thing is every single day trying to find time for each of them privately. ‘Cause that’s our big thing. With our eldest, we have that last half an hour at night; Shiloh tends to be the first up in the morning. Everybody gets special time so we can make sure we know where they’re at.

And Angelina revealed that Brad Pitt’s new lower back tattoo is just something she first drew on his back while they were in Davos at the World Economic Forum and that he had it made into a tattoo.

What’s the deal with Brad’s new tattoo?
I drew that. We went to Davos. It’s not that we were bored at the World Economic Forum, but one night we didn’t have anything to do, so I was drawing on his back.

So it’s not permanent?
It is. But I was just sketching.

On him?
On him, yeah.

And you thought, ”Let’s make it a tattoo”?
He just liked it! The picture everybody saw was kind of awkward, but it just lines up beautifully on his back, just enhances the part of the body I like.

So it doesn’t mean anything per se.
I mean, it’s meaningful in that it’s us making angles and shapes out of each other’s body, that kind of a thing.

Angelina will answer questions openly, and if you love or hate her for it, it doesn’t really matter to her. She’s still living her life and she’ll tell you about it.