National Geographic recently set up Angelina Jolie with a few new coworkers...bees! The well-known humanitarian and activist (as well as model and actress) posed for 18 minutes with a swarm of bees crawling all over her. She and photographer Dan Winters thought this would be a powerful way to remind people of the plight of the insect during National Bee Day on May 20th. Honeybees have been endangered in recent years despite their important use.
![](https://images.endeared.com/posts/10149/qP3dCzkkxTh95BauY6LmzYpxQjnUs3yy68toIhUz.jpeg)
According to Winters, Jolie was more than willing to take on the challenging and terrifying pose.
"There was never a moment of like, ‘Ooh,’ or anything. It was like she’d just kind of done this her whole life and this was sort of this laissez-faire experience for her," said the photographer. "And I was incredibly impressed by that. I was the only person on the crew that didn’t wear any protection. I kind of did it in solidarity."
![](https://images.endeared.com/posts/10149/Yk2Bewv85uQGBGwAzIWxi8fJQ99lkxq6dRQnXcyC.jpeg)
The trick for his mastery was tracking down the entomologist behind Richard Avedon’s 1985 "Beekeeper". The entomologist, now 87 years old, said that bees best respond to a specific pheromone that signals the bees to stay relaxed. Thankfully, he still had some of the special stuff locked away in a jar in the attic!
Maybe with Jolie's powerful image, as well as National Geographic's efforts to stop killing the bees, a real change could be possible!