Angelina Jolie Reveals How a Near Career Miss Sparked Her Love for Cambodia

Where Will Smith had misses – it’s 2025 and he’s still slightly sore about passing up the lead role in ‘The Matrix’ for another movie – Angelina Jolie had near misses.

The ‘Maria’ actress discussed the opportunities she nearly missed out on in a recent interview.

Angelina Jolie Reflects On the Things She “Almost Didn’t Do” During Her Latest Red Carpet Appearance

What would have Angelina Jolie’s life been like if all the things she nearly didn’t do turned into things she didn’t do. The actress doesn’t exactly know, but she’s sure her desire to call Cambodia home might not have happened if she missed one movie opportunity.

The actress, 49, was asked where she considers home at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival on Wednesday, Feb. 5, where she went on to take home the Maltin Modern Master Award.

“In my heart, Cambodia,” Jolie answered. “My first trip was Tomb Raider, where you saw me hanging upside down [in the clip].”

Reflecting on how life would have been greatly different if she passed up on the 2001 hit movie, ‘Tomb Raider,’ inspired by a video game of the same name, she said, “I learned something about life. I think about my life and the amount of things I almost didn’t do, almost missed, that would’ve changed the course of my life. I said no to Tomb Raider when I was first called.”

She was then asked why she ultimately decided to take the role, despite her initial refusal. Her answer went in line with what anyone would expect from the ‘Eternals’ actress: they promised her adventures.

“They said, ‘You can travel the world and train with the British military.’ And I said, ‘I will wear the shorts for the first five minutes and then I’ll never wear them again.’ And that’s true. And that’s the movie. That’s actually what happened.”

But that’s not all the connection that she shares with the Southeast Asian country, as she adopted her first child, son Maddox, from there a year later.

She would return to the country many years later for the Netflix film, ‘First They Killed My Father,’ though she credits Maddox, now 23, for encouraging her to take it.

Maddox was also a big help during the filming of the project, as he revealed in 2017 that he pitched in on meetings, prepped for shoots, and helped to review dailies to makes sure the film represented his home country in the best possible way.

Jolie previously told PEOPLE that her son “goes back and forth [to Cambodia] a lot, but this would be over four months of just being in the country, really reading, listening, learning and absorbing all things about his culture and country [including] the very, very dark parts.”

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