Brad and I 'just friends' before his divorce, insists Jolie

But the actress said she and the heartthrob, who met as they filmed Mr & Mrs Smith, remained nothing more than friends until after Pitt and Aniston announced they were divorcing in early 2005.

• Jolie's tattoos - bedtime reading for Brad?

Jolie said she and Pitt got on so well as they worked on the movie that she could not wait to get to the set each day.

By the end of the shoot they realised their friendship might have the potential to be more.

The star, who this year had a baby with Pitt, 42, and shares two adopted children with him, also said she would like to sit down face-to-face with Aniston, if the Friends actress would agree.

"Because of the film, we ended up being brought together to do all these crazy things, and I think we found this strange friendship and partnership that kind of just suddenly happened," the Tomb Raider star told US Vogue of her connection with Pitt.

"I think a few months in I realised, 'God, I can't wait to get to work.'

"Whether it was shooting a scene or arguing about a scene or gun practice or dance class or doing stunts - anything we had to do with each other, we just found a lot of joy in it together and a lot of real teamwork.

"We just became kind of a pair. And it took until, really, the end of the shoot for us, I think, to realise that it might mean something more than we'd earlier allowed ourselves to believe.

"And both knowing that the reality of that was a big thing, something that was going to take a lot of serious consideration."

Jolie said that when they met she had not known "exactly where Brad was in his personal life."

"But it was clear he was with his best friend, someone he loves and respects," 31-year-old Jolie said.

"And so we were both living, I suppose, very full lives."

She added: "Brad was a huge surprise to me... I think we were the last two people who were looking for a relationship. I certainly wasn't. I was quite content to be a single mom."

Jolie said that it took a "long time" for her and Pitt to decide to embark on a relationship.

"We spent a lot of time contemplating and thinking and talking about what we both wanted in life and realised that we wanted very, very similar things," she said.

"And then we just continued to take time. We remained very, very good friends - with this realisation - for a long time.

"And then life developed in a way where we could be together, where it felt like something we would do, we should do."

Jolie said she has only met Aniston briefly but it was not a "proper meeting."

"We've, like, passed each other and said 'Hi' briefly, shook hands," she said.

"But not a real sit-down-and-talk kind of meeting. That would be her decision, and I would welcome it."