THE BASICS

WHO IS SHE?: The 24-year-old actress-daughter of Jon Voight, Angelina Jolie has been hailed as the post-modern Ava Gardner for her sultry looks and incendiary sex appeal. She lives alone in New York City.

WHAT HAS SHE DONE?: She's won back-to-back Golden Globes for TNT's George Wallace and HBO's Gia, in which she played a heroin-addicted lesbian supermodel who died of AIDS. After supporting roles in Playing by Heart and Pushing Tin, she's taken the lead opposite Denzel Washington in the creepy crime thriller The Bone Collector. Still to come: December's Girl, Interrupted, a distaff One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest with Winona Ryder, Clea DuVall and Vanessa Redgrave; and next summer's Gone in 60 Seconds with Nicolas Cage and Giovanni Ribisi.

WHY DO WE CARE?: Her name means "little angel," but Angelina is a bit of a devil doll. She has a well-documented fondness for knives and tattoos. When she married the English actor Jonny Lee Miller, she wore black rubber pants and a white shirt with her husband-to-be's name written across it in her blood. She's openly bisexual. Her goal in life is to own a motel in the middle of nowhere. And she might be the best actress of her generation.

Playboy.com: How does it feel to be the Hollywood "It" girl of the moment?

Angelina Jolie: I don't really take a lot of that "you're-so-hot" stuff seriously. I'm a really goofy, odd little person and people will discover that eventually. For instance, I only wear black because I'm a slob. In fact, I only wear clothes that don't show spilled coffee. I'm one of the most flawed people. I woke up this morning and broke the phone by falling over.

PB: After you won your second Golden Globe, you jumped into the pool at the Hollywood Hilton. Did people think you were nuts?

AJ: What's funny to me is that everyone wasn't jumping into the pool. It's one of those events, and the people in the room are supposed to be free and wild, but everyone is so tame and careful.

PB: You've never been tame and careful, have you?

AJ: To be honest, I'm surprised I'm still here. I don't know why I am, but I am. I've always had this kind of feeling that the clock is ticking. Maybe that's why I choose to live openly. I don't have any fears about sort of throwing myself out there.

PB: Are you afraid of anything, Angelina?

AJ: I feel like I'm in therapy. I've been afraid of getting married, afraid of having children, afraid of even accepting a film because it meant I've got to stick around and be there for the amount of time it took to do the film.

PB: So, let's go back to the fear thing. You have a scene in The Bone Collector where you're in a room full of rats. That must have been scary.

AJ: Nah, I really like rats. I actually took one of the rats home, but my mom made me give it back. I like snakes, too. Fluffy little things frighten me.

PB: Speaking of fluff, you were offered a role opposite Drew Barrymore and Cameron Diaz in Charlie's Angels. Why did you turn it down?

AJ: Well, the selling point was that it was going to make me a big star, which, to me, is frightening. If I had done it, it would have been purely for the money. I mean, I read the script and it's about women in high heels running around. It's cute and Drew and Cameron are good at cute comedies. I wouldn't fit. And I wouldn't consider it fun. My fun movie is Gone in 60 Seconds, which I did with the guys. I play a car thief and I get to steal Italian sports cars. That was fun.

PB: You gave up acting for a while after you finished Gia. What happened?

AJ: I was in a place in my life where I had everything I thought you should have to make you happy, and I was feeling emptier than ever. I was scared of going out like Gia. I needed to just get away and find myself again.

PB: Where did you go after you dropped out?

AJ: I went to NYU Film School. That's when I realized how lucky I was to be on a film set. I appreciated my career from that moment on. I started opening up again. I started feeling like people weren't a threat to me. I started expressing myself through films as opposed to letting them trap me.

PB: Did you feel trapped shooting Girl, Interrupted in the middle of a functioning mental hospital?

AJ: It was tough. I have scenes where I'm actually strapped to a bed, which, for me, raises a lot interesting issues. I mean, there is something strange and kinky to all that stuff. The movie takes place in the Sixties, and just learning what they did to people back then is horrifying. There's one girl in there because she's gay. I wish they'd focused more on that character. It's so sad to think that someone was given shock treatments just because they're unsure of their sexuality.

PB: You've been very outspoken about your bisexuality.

AJ: Well, I really don't see anything physical as being that important. I mean, I don't see women, men or black, white. I don't see a handicapped person; I just see the person. I see the aura, the energy.

PB: At what point did you decide you wanted to run your own motel? Would you call it Angelina's?

AJ: No. It all started when I was driving by this motel in Arkansas and thought it would be perfect to own. I jumped out and asked if it was for sale and they said yes. I didn't end up buying it, but I loved that there were 22 little rooms. I thought I could just ride motorcycles, fix up the rooms and grease the floors and stuff. I'm still looking for another motel. It's my dream project. I love places that have funky neon signs and are really tacky. The one I liked was called Happy Hollow. That was a great name.

PB: Who has bigger lips -- you or Mick Jagger?

AJ: Me, if I'm wearing lipstick. You know who has sexy lips? John Cusack.

PB: What do you find sexy in a man or a woman?

AJ: I like someone who is a little crazy but coming from a good place. I think scars are sexy because it means you made a mistake that led to a mess. Then I'm kind of like, "Hi, I'm Angelina."

PB: OK, for all the scared people in the world, where are you going to be on New Year's Eve?

AJ: The Chelsea Hotel. I don't know. I don't have plans. I want to find some crazy motel and just let it pass.

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