The Meaning of Life

Last night, Andrew Denton's interview with Angelina Jolie and Clint Eastwood (promoting their new film, Changeling) ran on the ABC on the hugely popular - and soon to end :o( - Enough Rope. Andrew Denton is one of the most fascinating, thorough and gifted interviewers I've ever seen on TV. He has a wonderful way with people from all walks of life - he's honestly interviewed everyone from Bill Clinton to the person in the street who's lived an unusual life.

A few things struck me about the interview - first, Angelina Jolie is such a warm human being. I had initially not loved her due to the Brad-Jen thing, to the extent that I predicted Brad would return to the warmth of Jen after realising that Angelina was a white witch evil temptress! I take it back. I'm now of the opinion that Jennifer Aniston is a piece of cardboard, and who wouldn't fall in love with Ms Jolie after being in her crazy, mixed-up, fun world.

The other thing that struck me was that after all these people have achieved, they look to the basic elements of life - family, parenting, love, communication, friendship - as the essentials of life and the things that have moulded them, changed who they are fundamentally, and what they hope to bequeath to future generations.

On love:

• Clint Eastwood: Everyone talks about romance and love but love - it’s friendship. Is this person your friend and the friendship is the most important thing, and then you grow to love them of course, and love ... there’s romantic love and then there’s love of the heart and love of children ... but just having somebody that is a real friend ... that’s the most important thing. I’ve known a lot of women in my life but not a lot of them I can say I really want to be friends with. ... Do you laugh together? If you get in the car ... and drive a couple of hundred miles and you’re still talking and you’re still having a good time then that’s fine. I mean or are you just sitting silently and you’re enjoying being. That’s important but if you get in a car with somebody and say gee I wish I could get this car back to where we started and get this person out of it real quick, then you know that this is not going to work out.
• Angelina Jolie: He’s that great friend and partner I like to talk with and laugh with and then more importantly I saw him with my son and I knew the type of man he would be and talked about family and we have this same, which is I think the most important for a couple, we have the same sense of how we see the world and how we see family and how we both want to build the same thing, we both have the same idea of what we should be spending our life doing and making.

On what they want to do before they die - their gift to themselves and the future:

• CE: I’d like to continue raising a family and make them as appreciative and functioning human beings so that they can enjoy their lives as much as I’ve enjoyed mine. And continue working cause I love that. I think that’s what keeps a person young is be interested in things, stay interested, and fortunately I’ve got a work that each story is a different situation so it keeps me interested. If I ever get to the point where I’ve lost interest in it then I want to just go look at a little golf ball and poing. Then I’m probably going to fade pretty fast after that.
• AJ: I still want to raise my kids great, I just want to make sure that they’re the people that they’re supposed to be and I don’t get in the way of it and I give them the right tools. That’s my main job. And on a personal note, I want to fly across the Sahara in a plane.

I love the juxtaposition between Angelina looking for her next adventure and Clint living for his work. Personally, I'd be looking to the next adventure which takes you away from your working life for a while. Eastwood does joke during the interview that he thinks about his trips to Pasadena, while he calls Angelina to find out the latest on Afghanistan because she's been there or simply knows the situation so well. I love this celebration of diversity, and people who are able to recognise their differences and appreciate a quality another person has that you don't have, without feeling the need to replicate that quality in themselves. If your friend is a daredevil and you're not - it doesn't matter as long as you're happy with yourself. People shouldn't make you feel boring because you don't share the same interests or tendency for reckless activities. The real truth in this interview is that we see two vastly different human beings, both contented with their place in this world, getting along famously.