Angelina Jolie

By Amy Longsdorf

03/12/2004 at 02:41 PM EST

Her name once was synonymous with PDA – but nowadays, Angelina Jolie has taken a step back from the gratuitous public liplocks and blood vials (which epitomized her brief marriage to Billy Bob Thornton) to get passionate about motherhood. Now 28 and twice-divorced, the Tomb Raider star is lavishing her attention on her 2-year-old son, Maddox, and keeping her love life (mostly) behind closed doors.

She does share a few personal details with the world – namely, what it's like to work with a "very sexy" Ethan Hawke in Taking Lives, as well as rumored love Colin Farrell, in the upcoming Alexander. Talking with reporters recently, the actress mused on her life in the gossip mill and how she keeps her "lovers" in their place.

Director D.J. Caruso likens your Taking Lives character, an FBI profiler, to a Clint Eastwood type, and Ethan as your femme fatale. Do you see it like that?
I find that really funny, and I keep getting asked if I felt like I was playing a man. I don't get that, because I thought that she was extremely feminine and very girly.

How was it working with Ethan?
Ethan is amazing and is very sexy in this. We don't often see him in those roles ... he can play dark.

What about Colin Farrell in Alexander? Were there any offscreen sparks there?
Well, according to the papers, first we hated each other, and then we were madly in love, and then we weren't speaking to each other. I can't even track it anymore. No, we became great friends.

I mean, the thing about rumors is that you're on set with Val Kilmer and (director) Oliver Stone and me and Colin, and we all looked around thinking, Well, which group is going to get attacked with rumors, yours or ours?

You must read about yourself a lot in the gossip columns.
I tend to not read the papers and I don't watch those TV shows. I think that I heard that I was with Jared Leto and I thought, Where did that come from?

So, you're not with Jared Leto?
I'm not.

What about your ex-husband, Jonny Lee Miller?
No, but Jonny and I are – the weird thing is, which I keep saying to everyone, I have lovers. (But) I keep them away. My son is not involved with them because I don't want him to get confused. So, I have friends that I've met in hotel rooms that are old friends of mine, and I have relationships, but not publicly and not with any one man because it's very confusing to children.