Brad Pitt's ex Angelina Jolie talks about avoiding an empty life: 'We're all trying to find balance'

Angelina Jolie has opened up about balancing her work life and personal life and revealed how she avoids living an empty life in a new interview.

The Maleficent actor, who filed for divorce from Brad Pitt in 2016 citing "irreconcilable differences", reflected on life and growing up as a person. She told Deadline: "You have your creative, and you have your work, and every day of your life is going to be about somehow growing as a person. Somehow feeling you can contribute to the extent that you can get tribute."

The Oscar winner also shared her take on how to avoid living an empty life and spoke about priorities as a mother. "[Nora Twomey] Nora and I, when we spend time alone, spend most of our time just talking about being moms, and I think that's the balance."

Jolie continued: "We're all trying to find balance, as people. I think to be a balanced person, you have to find those things that you just purely enjoy. But, of course, if you aren't participating in the bigger picture of life, and in being somehow useful, and you aren't doing something and growing, then really, you'll find you're not very happy. Really, you'll have quite an empty life."

Pitt and Jolie were together for 12 years and their divorce proceedings are ongoing. The former couple share six children together – Maddox, 16, Pax, 14, Zahara, 13, Shiloh, 11, and nine-year-old twins Knox and Vivienne.

The Salt actress also explained her decision to be attached to Twomey's Oscar-nominated animated feature as a producer.

Jolie said: "I wanted to work with Nora, and the book was special to my children, so I already knew the story. I have spent a lot of time in Pakistan, Afghanistan, with Afghan people."

"I have a love and respect for Afghan people, and I thought, "How wonderful that there would be something relatable, like animation, that can tell something as heavy as this story through the eyes of a child, in this unique art form," she told the outlet.

Based on a best-selling novel by Deborah Ellis, The Breadwinner tells the story of Parvana, a young Afghan girl whose father is sent to prison, and must then dress as a boy to provide for her family.