Jolie’s brood are getting in on the action
AnGelinA JOlie says her six children were ‘ fully involved, emotionally’ with the making of her heartbreaking new film about a girl who suffered the horrors of the killing fields in Cambodia.
The award-winning actress tells me her children had been schooled in a hut close to the set of what she called her most personal film, first They Killed My father: A daughter Of Cambodia remembers.
The picture, which she made for netflix, is based on a memoir by loung Ung, about how her family was torn apart by the Khmer rouge.
loung was just six when her parents and siblings were forced to flee their home after the rebels introduced brutal measures that resulted in the deaths of more than a million Cambodians.
it’s a hard watch, and Jolie admits her children were affected by the film-making because they had grown up knowing Ung, who had become a friend of their mother’s.
‘They know her, and they know her story. Two of the children worked in production on the film. loung is like an auntie to them,’ Jolie tells me when we speak during the Telluride film festival in Colorado, where first They Killed My father was receiving its world premiere before being shown in some cinemas in the U.S. and transmitted on netflix from next week.
Her brood — Shiloh, Maddox, Vivienne, Zahara, Pax and Knox — who all carry the surname Jolie-Pitt (after her estranged husband Brad Pitt), will also have a say in what project the Oscar- winner tackles next.
‘i want them to have a say — and they want to have a say,’ she says with a laugh. ‘They like the idea of going to london, so we are looking at the possibility of maybe doing Maleficent 2, perhaps in January.
‘They do like the idea of Mum doing something with action. They want Mum to get herself together, and do some kickass. it’s been a while. My last action film was eight years ago,’ she adds, referring to the spy thriller Salt.
‘it’s up to them, because we all travel as a unit. i think they’re leaning towards london, but we’ll have to see.’