Angelina adopted the adorable boy from a Cambodian orphanage, and she insists he never loses touch with his heritage. And it seems the young girls in his birth country have certainly kept him in mind!
Now 14 with a history of cool haircuts and his impressive command of three languages – English, French, and his native Khmer – not to mention movie-star parents in Ange and Brad Pitt, it’s no wonder that the teenagers of Cambodia hold him in high regard.
The dashing teenager joins his parents on Hollywood red carpets.
When approached by Woman’s Day online, teenagers in the central Cambodian city of Siem Reap, where Maddox is staying with his mother while she films her latest movie, First They Killed my Father were left nonplussed by pictures of western heartthrobs.
Images of Justin Bieber, Harry Styles and Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe meant nothing to them, and even Prince Harry only gained a flicker of recognition.
However, once they were shown Maddox, all the girls’ eyes lit up.
Adorable! Three Cambodian students get giggly when they see a picture of Maddox. Photo: Coleman-Rayner
“I know him, he’s Angelina Jolie’s son! He has beautiful eyes and a beautiful smile,” says 14-year-old Chan Tha.
“When I grow up I would love to marry him, because he is well educated. I think he will be a movie star when he gets older.”
Heng Limat, 16, liked the fact Maddox was so good at languages, but said, “I would like him to learn Chinese, that’s the best language to be able to speak.” Heng tells us she’s hoping to run into Maddox while he’s staying in her hometown.
“I don’t know what I would say to him!” she says shyly. “His hair is really modern and cool, I like it and he looks very handsome. Many girls in Cambodia like him, and he does good work [for charity].”
Forget Bieber and Harry – it’s Maddox Mania in Siem Reap! Photo: Coleman-Rayner
Angelina named her Maddox Jolie-Pitt Foundation after her eldest son, and the charity does a great deal of conservation work in Cambodia, as well as helping some of its poorest residents, particularly in the Battambang region where Maddox was born.
Maddox, the eldest of Brad and Angelin’s six children, has been heavily involved in the research of First They Killed My Father, which tells the story of a dark period in his homeland’s history, when the ruling Khmer Rouge regime massacred millions of the country’s citizens between 1975 and 1979.
He is also expected to have a role in the drama, which will mark the start of his on-screen career.
But no matter how famous Maddox becomes in his own right, he’ll still be Ange’s gorgeous chubby cheeked baby boy in our eyes!
Seriously. Those cheeks.
