Angelina Jolie for the December 2023/January 2024 issue of WSJ. Magazine. PHOTO: ANNEMARIEKE VAN DRIMMELEN FOR WSJ. MAGAZINE

Angelina Jolie would rethink an acting career were she starting out today.

In a cover interview with WSJ. Magazine for its December 2023/January 2024 issue, the Oscar winner, 48, said she “wouldn’t be an actress today,” save for in perhaps theater.

“When I was starting out, it wasn’t as much of an expectation to be as public, to share so much,” Jolie explained.

As for how she reacts to news about her, she said she doesn’t read it, according to the outlet: “I’ve just been around so long, and there’s been everything said.”

“Because I grew up around Hollywood, I was never very impressed with it,” Jolie added. “I never bought into it as significant or important.”

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human-interest stories.

Angelina Jolie on the December 2023/January 2024 cover of WSJ. Magazine.ANNEMARIEKE VAN DRIMMELEN FOR WSJ. MAGAZINE

 Angelina Jolie Is Proud to Call Her Six Kids ‘My Close Friends,’ Says They’re All ‘Very Different People’

Jolie admitted during the interview that she doesn’t really have “a social life,” and said she isn’t dating at the moment.

“I realized my closest friends are refugees,” the humanitarian said. “Maybe four out of six of the women that I am close to are from war and conflict.”

The people she is “closest” to, though, are her kids: twins Knox and Vivienne, 15, daughters Shiloh, 17, and Zahara, 18, as well as sons Pax, 20, and Maddox, 22.

“They are the closest people to me and my life, and they’re my close friends,” the Maleficent actress told WSJ. Magazine. “We’re seven very different people, which is our strength.”

Angelina Jolie for the December 2023/January 2024 issue of WSJ. Magazine.ANNEMARIEKE VAN DRIMMELEN FOR WSJ. MAGAZINE

 Angelina Jolie to Write and Direct ‘Without Blood’ Starring Salma Hayek and Demián Bichir

In a recent Vogue cover story about her new fashion house Atelier Jolie, the actress/director explained why she’s taking on fewer film roles and even briefly wondered whether she is “still understanding who I am at 48.”

“I guess I’m in transition as a person,” Jolie said, after describing some recent confusion over where her personal sense of style may fall. “I feel a bit down these days. I don’t feel like I’ve been myself for a decade, in a way, which I don’t want to get into.”

She added that she began taking fewer movie roles “seven years ago, only taking jobs that didn’t require long shoots.”

“We had a lot of healing to do. We’re still finding our footing,” she told Vogue, noting that she believes founding Atelier Jolie has partially “been therapeutic for me — to work in a creative space with people you trust and to rediscover yourself.”