After 15-minute phoner with Angelina Jolie, without the distraction of her looks, I'm convinced she's for real. Blood & Honey opens 2/3
My day: Just talked to Ken
Kwapis, director of "Big Miracle." Waiting to hear from Angelina Jolie,
director of "Land of Blood and Honey."
Angelina Jolie: Tragic love story made me cry in Brad’s arms
Star on the heartache of her Bosnian War movie, In The Land Of Blood And Honey
Exhausted ... Angelina Jolie's directional debut pushed her to breaking point
Published:
Today at 00:56
SHE has a reputation as the ice maiden of Hollywood ice maidens – and even Angelina Jolie herself admits it takes a lot to make her cry.
In an exclusive interview, the 36-year-old actress tells how she ended up weeping and exhausted in the arms of partner Brad Pitt after spending months away from home filming In The Land Of Blood And Honey.
Confounding any rumours of a shaky home life for Brangelina, she says: "Brad has stood by me every step of the way.
"He took charge of the kids while I was away filming and was always encouraging me and telling me not to doubt myself.
"Just before I started doing Press for the film, I came home and started crying in Brad's arms because all my doubts and fears suddenly resurfaced. And I'm someone who very rarely cries."
The savagery of the war in the former Yugoslavia during the 1990s is enough to reduce anyone to emotional rubble.
Yet mum-of-six Angelina refuses to shy away from issues including rape, torture and murder.
The film follows the doomed love between Bosnian Serb soldier Danijel and Muslim Ajla.
Close ... Angelina turned to Brad for support after filming ended
Ajla arrives at a prison camp to find it being run by Danijel, by now her former boyfriend. It is the first time they have seen each other since the war started.
Not only did Angelina direct the harrowing tale, she also wrote it, after spending months visiting war-torn regions across the globe.
She says: "It was my work on behalf of the UN and travelling to different war zones that brought me to this story.
"The more I read and researched about the former Yugoslavia, the more I was emotionally affected. I was actually ashamed of myself for knowing very little.
Behind the camera ... Angelina directs cast on set of In The Land Of Blood And Honey
AP"It also made me ask questions which maybe can't be answered or explained — how can man be so primal? How can there be such violence against women?
"How can the international community turn its back and allow these atrocities?
"How can you make any sense of a conflict where people wind up raping and killing their neighbours who have lived with each other, married each other and shared so much history together?"
Despite a modest budget of £8million, In The Land Of Blood And Honey is already being showered with praise. A UK release date is yet to be announced.
For a directorial debut it's a great effort, although Angelina is still nervous and says: "It's been one of the best and most trying experiences of my life. I spent many sleepless nights preparing then directing the film.
A tale of despair ... Zana Marjanovic as Ajla and Boris Ler as Tarik in a scene from movie
Although the subject matter is pretty adult to say the least, all six of Angelina's children were allowed on set to watch Mum at work.
She says: "They went to school in Hungary and came to visit the set there after school. Most of the time they had to stay out. They liked to play with the fake snow.
"There were many days when they could never really come because there were scenes that were not appropriate for children.
"It was so dark and hard that any time you called 'cut', or we had a break, everybody was playing together.
"The cast would come out and play soccer with my kids. We would all laugh and try anything that brought levity and love because it was so dark. Off the set, I was happily with my kids. I was probably smothering them with love because of the nature of the subject matter."
It is her hands-on experience looking after her hefty brood — Pax, Zahara, Maddox, Shiloh, Knox and Vivienne — which armed her with the skills for running a high-pressure film set.
Conflict ... a father cradles his child as he runs from sniper attacks in Sarajevo, 1993
"I get nervous. I see my actors get dressed up for a premiere and think, 'Oh, did she get the right earrings?' or 'Did he get anything to eat before he went to the interview?'
"With all these other adults, you still feel this strange, nurturing, mothering quality for everybody."
After years at the top of her game, Angelina's acting career is now slowing down.
She admits her turbulent teenage years became her motivation to master different screen roles — but today she feels much more at peace.
She says: "I had grown up as a pretty scary teenager who was self-destructive and who didn't have a good outlook on life. Acting gave me a better place to be but early in my career I still didn't appreciate what the world offered me, or have a good idea of who I was and what I wanted from life.
Jolie happy ... Brad and Angelina with, from left, Zahara, Pax, Maddox, Shiloh, Vivienne and Knox
Barcroft Media"I'm just glad I was able to return to some of that innocence and beauty I had as a child when I started my own family, and my children brought me back some of that spirit."
There's no doubting family life has taken a lead role in recent years, although Angelina is scheduled to play the main character in Cleopatra, the upcoming remake of the 1963 film that starred Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.
She says: "First and foremost comes my family and my life with Brad. We have so much joy in raising our children and teaching them about the world that nothing really compares to that.
The facts: Bosnian War
The Bosnian War broke out in April 1992.
Serbs, Muslims and Croats fought over whether Bosnia should stay in the Yugoslav Federation or become independent.
It raged for more than three years, until December 1995.
By its end around 100,000 people in Bosnia and Herzegovina were dead. Millions were homeless.
The worst atrocity was the massacre of nearly 8,000 Muslim men and boys by Bosnian Serb forces who overran the town of Srebrenica in July 1995.
"We have our work, of course, but I tend to think of my acting career as a small part of my life, and I want to spend more time with my family, as well as travelling the world on behalf of the United Nations.
"Acting is just not as urgent or necessary for me any more. I needed acting earlier in my life because it was very therapeutic for me.
"Then I changed my outlook on myself and my life. Now it's something I still enjoy but it's just not as important as it used to be.
"When you have a big family you just give up your personal life at a certain point.
"You even try to take a bath and everybody comes in, so you give up, and that's OK.
"As somebody who likes to be alone, I surprise myself that I'm very happy to be surrounded by everybody in my family.
"I feel that comfort."
n.francis@the-sun.co.uk
February 2, 2012 at 1:00 am
Study of war inspired Jolie film
The first person to whom Jolie showed her script was Pitt, her partner and father of their six children.
"He said it was pretty good," she says with a smile. "We talked further about it, and he encouraged me throughout the whole process.
"If he would have said anything negative, we wouldn't be here talking about this today."
The first person to whom Jolie showed her script was Pitt, her partner and father of their six children.
"He said it was pretty good," she says with a smile. "We talked further about it, and he encouraged me throughout the whole process.
"If he would have said anything negative, we wouldn't be here talking about this today."
Projects: Ridley Scott - Gertrude Bell News
It seems Jeffrey Caine's script for Gertrude Bell isn't ready yet and Ridley Scott may do The Counselor after Proetheus. If that happens, he won't be able to do Bell until at least mid-2013.
Maleficent - March to June possible
12 Years A Slave - June
Luc Besson - July to Sept or could switch with Maleficent
Salt 2 - ?
Cleopatra - if FIncher doesn't do 20K could be as early late 2012, otherwise mid 2013 or later
Gertrude Bell - mid to late 2013
Company Men
17 dossiers stolen from the Central Intelligence Agency.
17 dossiers on the people who've shaped the Agency into the den of assassins and killer pencil pushers it is today, the ones involved in every major operation: takedowns in Mexico, dolphin experimentation, malt liquor conspiracies and so on. This is the Agency's most prized list and now it's fallen into the wrong hands: Yours.
We lost a few guys in this operation. So commit these to memory, then burn after reading.
NAME: Salt, Evelyn
17 dossiers on the people who've shaped the Agency into the den of assassins and killer pencil pushers it is today, the ones involved in every major operation: takedowns in Mexico, dolphin experimentation, malt liquor conspiracies and so on. This is the Agency's most prized list and now it's fallen into the wrong hands: Yours.
We lost a few guys in this operation. So commit these to memory, then burn after reading.
LAST KNOWN WHEREABOUTS: Salt (2010), alias Angelina Jolie.
HISTORY: Crack Agency agent trained in Soviet Russia. Accused of being an enemy spy. Went on the run to clear her name and save her life.
STATUS: ROGUE.
Overall Threat Level: Low on the female action hero plausibility scale. Scored pretty high on the Hubbard Electrometer, though.
