When Beverly D’Angelo became a mom at age 49, she was determined to raise her children away from the glaring Hollywood spotlight.
The "National Lampoon" star, 74, welcomed twins Anton and Olivia Pacino in 2001 with then-partner Al Pacino. The couple were together from 1997 to 2003.
The actress is kicking off the new year by starring alongside Hayden Panettiere in the psychological thriller "Sleepwalker."
"There’s this thing that happens when you have kids," D’Angelo told Fox News Digital. "All of a sudden, you go, ‘Oh, wait a minute, my parents.’ You look at how you were raised. Maybe some of the things that you thought were a drag when you were a kid turn out to be exactly what you want to pass on. And my value system has never included a lot of hype or a lot of focus on fame."
"I’m from the Midwest," she said. "In retrospect, even though I was a real rebel, leaving home at 17, I had a great upbringing. Everything was clear. There were good people who didn’t lie."
"You follow the golden rules — find something you can do well, be responsible with it and embrace your community," D'Angelo continued. "You know, all the four-square values. American values. And I really had a pretty all-American upbringing for as wild as my life has been."
D’Angelo stressed she wanted to give her children as normal an upbringing as possible.
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"I raised them with values of honesty, responsibility and finding your gifts," she said. "I wanted them to focus on that."
D’Angelo noted she didn't think twice about prioritizing her children over her Hollywood career.
"I had kids really late — I gave birth to twins six weeks after I turned 49," she explained. "It was really important to me to place them at the center of my world. So, I wouldn’t do any films that would take me out of town for any amount of time. I did television, I did some indie films and things like that, but my focus was really to always be emotionally and physically available to my kids."
"And I’ve got to make a confession: I’m not a careerist," she admitted. "I have never been. Everything I’ve done is because I love a script or a character. But as far as pursuing a career, I wasn’t somebody who had a dream like, ‘One day I’m going to grow up and become an actress.’ That’s not me. I never thought, ‘If I do this role, maybe I’ll get this other role.’ I’ve always just been motivated by a profound need to express myself."
After high school, the Ohio native moved to California and landed a job at Hanna-Barbera Studios. She later moved to Canada, where she trained as a studio vocalist before landing a Broadway role in "Rockabye Hamlet."
"Instead of being pursued by the music industry, it was casting directors for films," said D’Angelo. "I got my Screen Actors Guild card with a line in ‘Annie Hall.’ And I just worked, worked, worked. It took 14 auditions for the film ‘Hair’ that landed me the lead role of Sheila. I worked on that film with a fantastic director, Miloš Forman."
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"He was a very important director in the whole scheme of things," she continued. "He really held my hand and introduced me to the world of film. That’s really where I got my acting experience. It’s always been in film."
"My acting was learned. It all came from being in the moment. That’s what you have to do — just be in the moment."
When asked whether she ever felt pressure to be a sex symbol in Hollywood, D’Angelo didn’t hesitate: "One hundred percent."
"And then I left," she said. "I moved to Italy. I don’t know what else to say except I really wasn’t a careerist. I didn’t plot, I didn’t plan. I’ve always had great people around me. I had a fantastic agent for a long time. I have a wonderful agent now, but again, I was never a plotter or a planner."
D’Angelo was married to Italian duke Lorenzo Salviati from 1981 to 1995.
Today, D’Angelo stays busy, acting on her own terms — and often playing a role she knows well.
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"Acting today is a gift, and it’s a gift to come to this point, too," she said. "You have something to say in your 20s, your 30s and your 40s. And then, you don’t find a lot of people writing what women have to say as time goes on."
"The fantastic thing about aging is that you have this wealth of experience," D'Angelo continued. "You can relate to so much more. I’m not saying it entitles you to become a know-it-all. You just have a greater understanding of the world."
"I’ve been really lucky to have been met with so many opportunities," she reflected. "It’s a whole new phase — fantastic, really. And you know what? Every single role I’ve done in the past year has been a mother. That’s a recurring theme. I do like to think that with the ‘Vacation’ movies, I was the original MILF."
