Angelina Jolie, 46, has posed covered in a swarm of bees to celebrate World Bee Day.
The Hollywood actress posed for National Geographic to help raise awareness of the plight of the critters by being photographed while her upper body was covered in a swarm of bees.
The actress also shared that she was advised not to shower because having too many scents such as shampoo and soap would have been confusing for these tiny little buds.
The magnificent shot was taken by amateur beekeeper Dan Winters.
“It was so funny to be in hair and makeup and wiping yourself with pheromone,” Angelina explained. “We couldn’t shower for three days before.”
“Because they told me, “if you have all these different scents, shampoos and perfumes and things, the bee doesn’t know what you are”, she said. “[They] don’t want [bees] to confuse you for a flower, I suppose.”
She was wearing minimal make-up with her hair tied back and she also revealed that she “put a few things up” her nose and ears to stop bees from climbing in, though she wasn’t able to stop one naughty bee from climbing up under her dress.
With her shoulders bare, the actress stared right through the cameras and let the insects crawled all over her chest shoulders, neck, and face.
“It was like one of those old comedies,” she said. “I kept feeling it on my knee, on my leg, and then I thought, “Oh, this is the worst place to get stung. It’s getting really close”.”
“It stayed there the entire time we were doing the shoot. And then when I got all the other bees off, I lifted the skirt and she went away,” she added.
The actress told the magazine that it “felt lovely to be connected to these beautiful creatures.”
Angelina, the long-time environmentalist was recently called “Godmother” for Women for Bees, it is a five-year joint program launched by UNESCO and French beauty company Guerlain. The program aims to train and support female beekeeper entrepreneurs worldwide.
According to reports by National Geographic, Guerlain has now contributed $2 million for the training and funding of 50 women beekeepers in 25 UNESCO-designated biosphere resources worldwide.
It is anticipated that these beekeeper entrepreneurs will be able to build 2,500 native beehives by the year 2025 providing home and protection for 125 million bees.
“What’s exciting to me is that instead of stepping forward and saying, “We are losing the bees, we have certain species that have gone extinct, are going extinct,” we’re coming forward to say, “Yes, this is how you have to protect,” Angelina said.
“You have to be more conscious of chemicals and deforestation.point 177 | But also, here are things different people can do,” she added.point 235 |
“You don’t even have to have land, but you can consider being a part of the solution.point 77 | What’s exciting is that we’re coming at this with solutions [and] empowering women in their livelihoods.point 170 | ”point 173 | 1
The training will be given to women from Bulgaria, Cambodia, China, Ethiopia, France, Russia, Rwanda, and Slovenia this year, with the training set to be rolled out in several other countries next year.