It was a shocking Wednesday for worldwide fans of Angelina Jolie when she announced her retirement from acting. Apparently, Jolie, mother of six, feels the need to shift focus onto new endeavors in her life.

Angelina's comment during her interview with DuJour magazine left her fans shocked as she said that she is ready to give up performing for directing.

"I've never been comfortable as an actor; I've never loved being in front of the camera," Jolie said, "I didn't ever think I could direct, but I hope I'm able to have a career at it because I'm much happier."

When asked if she's ready to leave acting behind for good she said, "Absolutely," Jolie responded.

Last June, she said that her performance as Cleopatra would be her last appearance, she said in this regard, "It's one of those that you think maybe that's the one you put everything into and that's where you end it, that's where you finish - in a great way," she said on BBC Radio Five Live, "What could you do beyond that one?"

The film-maker also confirmed that she had a tough time convincing her husband Brad Pitt that 'Unbroken', the wartime era story of a former Olympic track star who survived a plane crash over sea and spent two years in a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp, was the right project to spark her second turn in the director's chair.

"I saw these four sentences on Unbroken," she said, referring to a list of potential films provided by studio Universal, "I went home and I said to Brad, 'I'm really curious about this film - it's a triumph of the human spirit finding faith and forgiveness, and this man's life seems so interesting.' And Brad said, 'Oh, honey, that project has been around forever.' "

"To direct myself was hard, to direct him (Pitt) was a challenge and to be in the scenes with him doing very heavy, heavy drama was difficult," she told The Australian.