Angelina Jolie talks about life after double mastectomy

Angelina Jolie appears stunning as ever even as the black-horned villain in Disney Pictures' "Maleficent," set to hit the big screen May 30 - almost exactly a year after her essay regarding her decision to undergo a double mastectomy was published in The New York Times.

The Academy Award-winning actress opened up to Entertainment Weekly, speaking at length about her life following the preventive double mastectomy.

"I'm great! I'm very happy I made the decision. I was very fortunate to have great doctors and very, very fortunate to have a good recovery and have a project like 'Unbroken' to have something to be really focused on, to be getting healthy for, and to be able to just get right back to work," Jolie said, referring to her second attempt at directing after the 2011 film "In the Land of Blood and Honey."

Last May, the 38-year-old actress and mother of six children, three biological, wrote for the first time regarding her decision to undergo preventive surgery knowing she carried the BRCA1 gene mutation. Prior to the operation, doctors told Jolie she had an 87 percent chance of developing breast cancer and a 50 percent chance of developing ovarian cancer.

The operations not only hit headlines across the globe, but provided Jolie with opportunities to meet other people confronted with similar situations.

Jolie told the magazine: "I feel very, very close - much closer - to other women, and women who are going through the same thing. Wherever I go, usually I run into women and we talk about health issues, women's issues, breast cancer, ovarian cancer."

Her conversations aren't just limited to women, however.

"I've talked to men about their daughters' and wives' health. It makes me feel closer to other people who deal with the same things and have either lost their parents or are considering surgeries or wondering about their children," the actress said.