Jolie on Motherhood and Mental Health

Oct. 17 -- She has been called a "Devil Doll" and a "Wild Woman." It's no wonder that movie star Angelina Jolie is as famous for her life off screen. She has admitted to cutting herself with knives, having a childhood obsession with death, and her two-year marriage to actor Billy Bob Thornton only added to Jolie's reputation as an outrageous eccentric.

Watch the full interview on 20/20, Friday at 10 p.m.

Jolie, 28, admits she had a self-destructive side, but isn't quite sure where it came from.

"I felt so off balance all the time," Jolie said. "I remember one of the most upsetting times in my life was after I had attained success, financial stability and I was in love, and I thought, 'I have everything that they say you should have to be happy and I'm not happy.' "

But Jolie has gone through some major life changes in the past few years. The most significant was her decision to adopt Maddox, a Cambodian orphan she affectionately calls Madness. Then she moved to England, where she plans to raise him.

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It seems motherhood has tempered Jolie's wild side. "I took charge of our life when he came home," she said, speaking of Maddox. "And I decided to make big choices and live even bolder and do things right away because it was our life suddenly and so I was inspired to travel the world all the time, because I want him to have this experience or that experience."

Jolie and Maddox often fly to Cambodia, she says, to maintain a connection with his heritage. The actress bought land there and is building a home on stilts in the jungle.

But property in Cambodia, a country that's still emerging from the devastation of the Khmer Rouge's killing fields, comes with serious perils — notably, land mines. Jolie said nearly 50 unexploded ordnances were uncovered on her land.

"Some of them are very small and plastic and some of them are big rockets and it does make me a bit nervous," she said.

Jolie, who is traveling around the globe as a goodwill ambassador for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, is aware of the potential dangers posed to herself and her son.