Angelina Jolie turned to acting simply to help her late mother Marcheline Bertrand pay her bills

She explained: "There's a lot that's not in my nature to be an actor.

"I'm very happy that I was able to be one - I'm very lucky and very fortunate - but I realised how much it was for my mother when she passed away, because I felt very differently about it as soon as she was gone.

"I think, when I started acting, it was a good means to an end. It was a job, and I wanted to help my mom with bills.

"It was a creative job, something where you get to explore different times in history, different people, different sides of yourself, learn different skills, so it's a wonderful job to have as you grow and as you learn as a person. But you also are not those people."

Angelina, 42, conceded she's struggled to cope with the pressures of fame during her time in Hollywood.

The actress-turned-director said that when she first emerged on the scene, she was too inexperienced in life to deal with the scrutiny she faced.

Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Angelina reflected: "You're young and you don't know exactly who you are, yet you also get a microphone in front of your face, and you're 17, 18, and people are asking you your opinions, and you haven't formed them yet."

In the late 90s, Angelina even briefly turned away from the movie business, as she attended New York University.

Of that experience, she recalled: "I was ready to kind of have a different life ... I'd done what everybody said you should do - become an actor. This is what should make you happy, right ...? I was miserable. I was completely unhappy."