Angelina Jolie has always been open about her life before becoming Mother Teresa 2.0, so it was no surprise when she gave details on a former knife experiment gone wrong.

When I was 14, I collected knives. My first boyfriend and I ended up getting into some fighting in bed and being silly. People think that happens every time I go to bed.

It was actually something he never wanted to do again. It was a mistake and we really hurt ourselves. It was just being young, you know, when you’re curious about vampires and that kind of thing. Just experimenting. It was an accident and I ended up in hospital.

The fact that she was doing this at the age of 14 — even younger than Miley Cyrus — is slightly disturbing, but what’s even more fascinating is the fact that she completely recovered from a not-so-normal past to become one of the most successful celebrities in the world. Which got us thinking of a few other women who have bounced back from their own personal tragedies. Feel free to disagree or throw in your own suggestions.

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Roman Polanski, addressing critics who say he shouldn’t have had sex with a drunk 13-year-old girl when he was 43: “Americans are ‘prudish.’”

More than 30 years after Roman Polanski plied her with champagne and a Quaalude and then sodomized her, Samantha Geimer, Polanski’s now 45-year-old rape victim, says that though her attack remains an “unpleasant memory,” she doesn’t think Polanski should face jail time.

“I don’t think he needs to be locked up forever,” said Geimer, adding, “I think he’s sorry, I think he knows it was wrong.” Of course, Geimer can’t be sure of this, because, rather than telling her he’s sorry and that what he did was wrong, Polanski’s been straight chilling in France for the past three decades, ducking justice like the cowardly kid-raper he is.

The woman whom fugitive director Roman Polanski raped more than 30 years ago appeared Tuesday at the premiere of a documentary about the notorious attack. Samantha Geimer, who was just 13 when Polanski sexually assaulted her in Jack Nicholson’s Hollywood home, told Fox News that, were she able to say one thing to Polanski, she would tell him, “I’ll bet you wish you never met me.”

After being convicted of statutory rape, Polanski, who was then 44, fled to Europe to avoid jail time. He’s since not set foot in America and won an Oscar.