Angelina Jolie Staged a Carefree Rooftop Photo Shoot With Artists

At this point in her life, we’re used to seeing Angelina Jolie in just a few settings: on the red carpet, usually in the company of her kids; on the street, captured by the paparazzi; and in highly produced shoots, either for cover stories or ad campaigns. It was surprising, then, when a whole series of casual Instagrams featuring the Academy Award winner surfaced late last week. The Jolie pictured is neither glammed up nor doing her best to avoid a horde of photographers. She’s fully posing, and apparently fully having a ball. The photos may even call to mind the days when you’d stage an impromptu photo shoot for the sole sake of changing up your Facebook or Myspace pic.

Of course, the reality was much more highbrow. Jolie was simply in full vacation mode while in the company of some of her most prominent artist pals. Having wrapped up the Paris portion of her Europe travels, she met up with JR, Prune Nourry, and Ai Weiwei in Venice, Italy. Jolie has been friendly with Ai for years, and long highlighted the Chinese dissident’s work raising awareness of the global refugee crisis. Even if that weren’t the case, though, rest assured that Ai would have posted a selfie with her all the same. It’s essentially the price of admission for spending even just a minute in his company, as constantly evidenced by his Instagram account. Nourry, a multidisciplinary artist known for her sculptures, was also happy to comply.

Nourry’s husband, the French street artist JR, does not hold any such requirement. And yet, a carefree Jolie could be seen posing all across his Instagram Stories. She even did so while precariously perched on a terracotta rooftop, barefoot and grinning in a breezy Brunello Cuccinelli caftan.

Of course, at the end of the day, Angelina Jolie is still Angelina Jolie. One of the last clips that JR shared, of Jolie leaning out the window on the train to Strasbourg, France, could easily have been a scene from a movie.