It's not uncommon for actors who find success to eventually try their hand at directing and many of them end up making entire second careers out of working behind the camera. Angelina Jolie seemed to be one of those who was going to make the transition from being in front of the camera to being behind it, if not completely, then significantly. Only a few years ago she had basically stopped acting and was clearly more focused on work as a director. However, that's now changed and we're seeing Jolie more in front of the camera again. The actress herself admits this is more out of necessity than desire, and is related to her home life.
The next time we see Angelina Jolie on screen will be in Taylor Sheridan's Those Who Wish Me Dead, where she'll play a firefighter trying to protect a child from killers. But we saw her in the Disney sequel Maleficent: Mistress of Evil before that and will see her again in the MCU franchise film Eternals later this year. The actress/director recently told EW that her recent run of acting gigs is simply because due to her family situation, possibly meaning her ongoing divorce from Brad Pitt, she hasn't been able to dedicate the time that directing requires.
I love directing, but I had a change in my family situation that's not made it possible for me to direct for a few years. I needed to just do shorter jobs and be home more, so I kind of went back to doing a few acting jobs. That's really the truth of it.
Angelina Jolie has been dealing with child custody as well as the end of her marriage to actor Brad Pitt, for several years. As such, the all encompassing job of being a film director simply hasn't been an option for Jolie. As director she would need to oversee not only the filming of a movie but the pre and post-production process, so the job can literally take several years depending on the project. Acting, by comparison, has less responsibility and takes less time. Jolie only needs to show up for her scenes and then can head back home to be with her kids.
To be clear, there's no indication that Angelina Jolie is doing any acting work she'd rather not be doing, but it certainly does seem like she wants to get back to directing. She'll certainly be able to do that at some point. Jolie's oldest child is 19, legally an adult, and her youngest are 12, so as they get older she'll be able to take more time away from home, so even if it's a few more years before she can return to directing, it seems a foregone conclusion that once she can, that's exactly what she'll do.
