Angelina Jolie Gets Swarmed By Bees In Breathtaking Photo — After Skipping Showers For Three Days In Order To Take Stunning Shot For World Bee Day

May 21, 2021

In a stunning new portrait that looks like it might be straight out of a horror movie, Angelina Jolie poses for the camera while covered in live bees. But the photograph, taken by the American portrait photographer Dan Winters, isn’t part of a campaign for the next scary movie. 

In partnership with National Geographic, Jolie sat for the photo to raise awareness around World Bee Day, which is on Thursday, May 20, and to draw attention to a UNESCO-Guerlain program that trains women to be beekeepers and stewards of the natural world. 

For more than a decade, scientists have been raising the alarm about declining bee populations. The insects are extremely important not just because they provide honey, but more importantly because they pollinate different plants, allowing them to reproduce. Without bees, many of the crops that we rely on for food would not exist. In light of these worrying developments, Jolie volunteered for the unreal seeming photograph.

Inspiration for the portrait came from a famous Richard Avedon portrait from 1981 of a shirtless beekeeper painted in white covered in bees. In a May 20 interview with National Geographic, the “Maleficent” star opened up about the photoshoot and spoke to the various initiatives that her new portrait is meant to highlight.

Jolie, a mother of six children and actor Brad Pitt’s ex-wife, is no stranger to using her platform to raise awareness. The May 20 campaign is just one of many initiatives that the 45-year-old star has backed over her decades-long career as one of Hollywood’s most socially conscious actresses.

The remarkable photo, which is featured in the video below, sees Jolie standing stoically still for the camera as around 100 live bees crawl across her skin and buzz overhead. And unlike a beekeeper, Jolie is seen without safety equipment. Beyond two understated earrings and a simple white dress, the actress is completely unprotected from the buzzing bee colony.

According to National Geographic’s May 20 interview, Jolie was inspired to sit for the photo for a variety of reasons, including bees’ vital importance to our food supply. Pollinators are responsible for three out of every four of the leading crops that humans eat, according to a 2021 report from the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization.

“The diversity of food available is largely owed to animal pollinators,” the report reads. “But alarmingly, in a number of regions, pollination services are showing declining trends.”

Pesticide use, climate change, shrinking habitats and parasitic mites are largely responsible for this worrying decline in bee populations, and several countries have seen astronomical die-offs following the spread of “colony collapse disorder” in 2006.

“Pollinators of course are extremely vital to our life and our environment,” Jolie said in her interview with National Geographic. “And so we have to understand scientifically what happens if we lose them. This is something we can work to solve.”

Apart from Jolie’s ambition to raise awareness about bees themselves, the new portrait is also part of an effort to highlight the Women for Bees campaign. The five-year program, headed by UNESCO and the French beauty company Guerlain, aims to train 50 women beekeepers across the globe. 

“(Women) are hungry to learn, they have great business instincts,” Jolie said of the program. “It’s not just about going around teaching women, it's about learning from women all around the world who have different practices.”

As for the consciousness-raising photoshoot itself, Jolie described the experience as “lovely.” Given the details of the photoshoot, that’s a fairly surprising answer. Jolie not only had to forego showering for three days — the bees “don’t know what you are” if you’re covered in floral perfume — but the actress also had to be covered in a bee pheromone, the same one that Richard Avedon had used in his portrait four decades ago. On top of all that, the actress inserted plugs into her ears and nose to prevent curious bees from wandering into places they weren’t supposed to be.

"My main concern was safety," photographer Dan Winters told National Geographic. "Everyone on set, except Angelina, had to be in a protective suit. The set had to be quiet and fairly dark to keep the bees calm … Angelina stood perfectly still, covered in bees for 18 minutes without a sting."

Despite the rather harrowing circumstances, Jolie was unphased by the experience.

“I'm going to sound like my Buddhist practices, but it just felt lovely to be connected to these beautiful creatures,” Jolie told National Geographic. 

“I think part of the thought behind it was, this creature is seen as dangerous sometimes or stinging,” the actress added. “So how do we just be with it? The intention is we share this planet. We are affected by each other. This is what it should feel like and it really did, and I felt very honored and very lucky to have the experience.”

What do you think about Jolie’s new portrait? Would you have been able to sit for a photograph covered in bees? Let us know what you think, and be sure to pass this story on to others!