Angelina Jolie is one of W Magazine’s Great Performances cover stars. Even though Jolie has been promoting Pablo Larrain’s Maria for months, she’s barely done any magazine covers – just the Hollywood Reporter and Vogue Mexico, right? And now W Magazine. Her W interview was charming, she was able to move away from some of her (stale) Maria talking points and actually chat for a second about studying acting at the Lee Strasberg Institute, and how Geminis are misunderstood. Some highlights:

Whether Maria Callas wanted to be glamorous: “There’s this idea that she wanted to be glamorous or be “the thing.” I think it was more survival. When she was young, her mother made it very clear to Maria that she was not good enough as she was. So she was always trying to pull it all together—to do and be and present. I don’t think she felt that being just Maria was enough.

Her favorite wardrobe piece from Maria: “My favorite look of hers was her robe. It was handmade in Italy, crocheted. The woman behind closed doors, in the robe, with her faith and her little poodles following her—that was not what the world wanted from Maria. What they wanted was Callas.

Did she always want to be an actor? “I did it in the beginning because it was my mother’s dream. She pursued acting, but by the time my mom was 25, she was divorced with two kids and she decided to focus her life solely on motherhood. She didn’t make me feel like it was a sacrifice—she loved being a stay-at-home mom. But she really wanted me to be an actress. I don’t remember making the choice. I remember it made my mom happy. My mom was my manager, and we were a team. I always wanted to buy her a house, and I started to pay the bills. When my mom passed, it was harder for me to be an actress because I realized how much of it was for her.

Her pet peeves: “So many things. But my pet peeve is somebody who is a liar. Somebody who feels a need to not say the truth or what they want, what they feel. There’s a big version of that—and I’m not trying to be heavy about it—but people who say one thing and mean another, who aren’t completely who they are. I think a lot of people don’t say what they mean.

Whether she’s more like a cat or a dog: “I’ve been told I’m like a cat. I’m loyal like a dog, and I follow my kids around like a dog, but I probably am more catlike. When I was in acting class, we would study cats. They only use the muscles they need. They have perfect relaxation. A cat is either very loving and really with you, or else do not get in its space. I have a feeling I’m a bit like that.

Her sign: “Gemini. I think we’re mistaken for being of two faces, but we probably have 20, which is why a lot of us are actors. We just have many, many sides.”

[From W Magazine]

Her crocheted robe in Maria was spectacular, it was like a character in the film. It made me want to find a duplicate, although I would probably look like a big dumb doily if I ever found one. The stuff about how it was hard for Angelina to continue acting after her mother died… I think that’s a partial explanation for the decade-plus where she was only taking like one acting gig every two years. Another explanation is that she was in a toxic relationship and I’ve wondered for years if Brad kept her from working. How many scripts did she turn down when they were together? As for Angelina’s sign… she’s a by-the-books Gemini. As is Kendrick Lamar.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Netflix, W Magazine.