Jolie: Acting's Tough After Helping Refugees

DAVOS, Switzerlan – Going back to making movies isn't easy after doing something as rewarding as helping refugees, says Angelina Jolie (search), the actress turned U.N. goodwill ambassador.

Jolie, one of the celebrities attending the World Economic Forum (search), said acting cannot compare with the voluntary job she signed up for with the U.N. High Commission for Refugees in 2001.

"If I've had a few months I'm having trouble going back to work because I'm finding that my time at home with my son and taking him around and traveling to UNHCR programs or other parts of the world is just more fulfilling and more interesting to me and I know is more important," Jolie said Saturday.

"At the same time I know that by doing a film and making money and remaining in the public eye, I'm able to fund more programs and I'm able to bring more attention. So I know I have to do both. But it is hard to go back to work."

Jolie, who spoke to reporters a day after actress Sharon Stone (search) raised $1 million from forum participants to fight malaria in Africa, said she thinks celebrities can serve a valuable role by publicizing the realities of world problems.

"We need the political will, and that often comes from the will of the people. So if celebrities or personalities can help to educate the people — not influence them, not tell them (what to do) — just tell them the truth about what's happening and let them form their own opinion, that will strengthen them and they will push their politicians."

She said business leaders attending the forum in the Swiss Alps are showing growing interest in helping the world's refugees.

"I met with a lot of UNHCR's business partners who have already been committing their resources and time," said Jolie, who is a goodwill ambassador for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (search). "There's quite a few."

She said the interest in helping refugees didn't need to be purely altruistic.

"Business people can understand that these are people that will be returning to the countries that were destroyed," Jolie said. "If they have proper support and education when they're in the camps or support when they're back, they can make the country stable and maybe in the future they don't go into conflict again.

"It's smart humanitarianism," she said. "It's also smart business."