Are Angelina Jolie And Brad Pitt's Kids Chasing Their Parents' Fame?

The trend of actors' children joining Hollywood in their parents' footsteps is as old as the film industry. Angelina Jolie is herself the daughter of renowned actor Jon Voight, but she expects her children to find different careers out of the limelight. "No, I think they're especially shy, very private people, and they want to be private," Jolie told E! News in an October 2024 red carpet interview.

Perhaps early exposure to the day-to-day of movie-making turned Jolie and Brad Pitt's children away from showbiz dreams. "Brad and I made the decision that we wouldn't keep them from sets and the fun of making movies, but we wouldn't [glorify it either] – we wouldn't make it a good thing or a bad thing," Jolie told Elle in 2014 after her daughter Vivienne appeared in "Maleficent." "But I would really prefer they do something else," she concluded.

Whatever her children choose to do, they'll have mom's support. As she told CR Fashion Book in September 2024, "The moment you become a parent you are never first again. Your life is for another. It's a beautiful feeling."

While they may not aspire to live their lives on the silver screen, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt's children still have experience working on their parents' productions. "Mad and Pax were on [2024's "Maria"] doing AD [assistant directing] work. They've done that quite a few times, and I think that's good for them," Jolie told The Hollywood Reporter in August 2024. She always enjoys having her children with her on set, even if they're not working on the film, because of the support they bring. "When I would have really heavy times, they would come over and just give me a hug or a cup of tea. ... [U]sually when I'm expressing that much pain, it's not in front of my children. ... And so for them to be with you when you're expressing it at such a level, I think it was the first time they ever heard me cry like that."

At one point, Maddox actually had an executive producer credit while most kids his age were busy worrying about their algebra homework. At just 16 years old, he assisted his mother on 2017's "First They Killed My Father." "I was trying to help wherever I could," he told People at the time. His brother Pax Jolie-Pitt was a set photographer on the same film a year after he and siblings Knox, Zahara, and Shiloh voiced characters in 2016's "Kung Fu Panda 3." Vivienne, of course, played a young Aurora opposite her mother's Maleficent in the 2014 film. Mother and daughter would work together again for the Jolie-produced 2023 Broadway adaptation of "The Outsiders," where Vivienne was credited as her mother's volunteer assistant. "She's very thoughtful and serious about theatre and working hard," Jolie told E! News in 2023.