Angelina Jolie Reveals Her 'Big Moment' With Brad Pitt Had Nothing to Do With Their Wedding

The couple attends the ‘By the Sea’ premiere. (GC Images)

For Angelina Jolie, the most important moment in her relationship with husband Brad Pitt was not when they exchanged vows written by their six children in an August 2014 ceremony. It wasn’t when Jolie walked down the aisle that day, escorted by two of her sons, wearing a dress decorated with artwork from all her children, or even when the 20 attendees at the wedding tucked into a cake whipped up for the occasion by — of course — one of her offspring. It came long before any of that.

“For me, the big moment was when [we] signed the [joint adoption] papers for [now 14-year-old son] Maddox and [10-year-old daughter] Zahara,” Jolie revealed in a new interview with the New York Times. “That was a decision to parent together, to commit to being a part of each other’s lives for the rest of my life. So [marriage] wasn’t close in comparison. In a way, it was very casual."

Pitt petitioned to adopt Maddox and Zahara and legally change their last names to Jolie-Pitt in December 2005 and it was granted the following year. He and his partner since 2005 would later add twins Vivienne and Knox, 7; Shiloh, 9; and 11-year-old Pax to their family.

(Getty Images)

For years, the couple said they wouldn’t marry until it was legal for all to do the same, although they later said their kids had begun to ask why they weren’t mister and missus. When the time came to finally make Pitt and Jolie’s union official more than eight years later, it was seriously unromantic. Not at all like the celebration at their French estate, Chateau Miraval.

"The ceremony was in France, but we had to do things legally in California,” Jolie noted. “One day I was in the edit room, and [Brad] was doing something and an assistant said, 'You have to sign some papers.’ So we came back and between meetings we were told, 'Here’s your license.’ Then someone said, 'The judge is outside.’ We both said, 'What do you mean, the judge is outside?’ Then the judge came in, this lovely guy, and at some point, Brad said, 'Shouldn’t we be standing up?’ The judge said, 'No.’ Then suddenly we realized we were married, in the most unceremonial way possible."

Jolie, 40, rarely speaks about her personal life. However, the Oscar winner was candid with the newspaper as she promoted the new film, By the Sea, which she wrote, directed, and, although she hadn’t originally planned to do so, starred in alongside her husband. Her decision to co-star in that movie with her new hubby about a disintegrating marriage was an interesting one, since it meant she and Pitt went pretty quickly from real-life newlywed bliss to portraying two people falling out of love.

(People magazine)

"A few days into filming I thought: This is such a bad idea. What was I thinking?” Jolie said. “This is going to destroy us before we’ve even gotten started. But by the time we got to the end of the film, we’d argued, challenged each other, disappointed each other, had good days, bad days, all of it. We’d pushed through, learned something about each other, found a new working relationship and came to like the idea of 'Yeah, it gets really bad, but you work it out."

One of the challenges the A-List stars have faced since tying the knot is her 2013 decision to undergo a mastectomy in order to reduce her chances of cancer, because of her genetic likelihood for developing the disease. Jolie wrote about her choice, as well as the decision to remove her ovaries in 2015, in Times op-eds. Although Jolie felt confident in sharing that part of herself with the public, she found herself nervous about some of the requirements of starring in her own movie. Remember, she initially didn’t plan to star.

"There were lots of scenes I wanted to change or cut,” she said. “I realized it was going to be me [naked] in that bathtub. But I told myself, put all of that aside. Like, you can’t change or cut this scene because you’ve had a mastectomy, or because we’re married and people are going to analyze this or that. That would be cheating."

Related: 40 Times Birthday Girl Angelina Jolie Inspired Us

The director also weighed in about the need for more women in powerful roles in Hollywood, such as director. Jolie herself has been at the helm of a movie several times, including last year for Unbroken.

"I just think that sometimes people in the business focus on the fact that you’re a minority,” Jolie said. “I don’t want people saying, 'Should we get a female director?’ I want to hear, 'Should we get a great director for this movie?’ But I’m the first female director that Brad’s ever worked with. That doesn’t seem right when you think about it."

Since his acting credits stretch back into the '80s, no it doesn’t.