Exclusive interview
Angelina Jolie on directing her new film,
NEW YORK— Dusk was falling on Central Park 40 storeys below and Angelina Jolie seemed weary, looking slightly pale in the dim light as she stood to shake hands in a Manhattan hotel suite.
She’d been following a punishing schedule publicizing the Second World War drama Unbroken, which arrives in theatres Christmas Day as an Oscar hopeful for both the picture, which she co-produced, and Jolie as director.
But the relentless push represents more than just a business obligation.
Rather, Jolie believes cast and crew “were all there with a higher purpose” when it came to filming the true account of Olympic runner Louis (Louie) Zamperini who endured being lost at sea and unimaginable anguish as a Japanese prisoner during the war yet lived to forgive his captors.
To come in the following days were nomination snubs from both the Screen Actors Guild and the Golden Globes, along with four nominations from the Broadcast Film Critics Association’s Critics’ Choice Awards, which included Best Director and Best Picture.
And then there was the case of chickenpox a week later — complete with a YouTube video that literally went viral — that would sideline her from the film’s Los Angeles premiere.
But on this early December afternoon, Jolie’s only concern was talking about Unbroken to a steady stream of media.
Dressed simply in black turtleneck, trousers and knee-high boots, she sat on the edge of a low sofa opposite Brit Jack O’Connell ( Starred Up, ’ 71), who plays Zamperini.
“I felt very compelled to tell the story,” Jolie told the Star of the drama that had been in various stages of development for more than 50 years before she came on board.
She called on Joel and Ethan Coen to rework the screenplay, based on Laura Hillenbrand’s meticulously researched 2010 bestseller, and cast largely unknown actors, including O’Connell and Japanese rock star Miyavi as sadistic camp commander Mutsuhiro Watanabe, dubbed the Bird by his captives.
Zamperini’s suffering is hard to imagine and his story is one that is often described as “inspiring.” Along with two crewmen, he survived a plane crash into the Pacific, where he was marooned for 47 days, surrounded by sharks. Emaciated and near death, he was picked up by the Japanese military, spending more than two years as a prisoner of war.
Tortured and starving, Zamperini never lost hope. He even publicly forgave his captors, embracing Christianity after struggling with alcoholism and depression upon his return to the U.S.
Jolie pauses often as she talks, collecting her thoughts before she ponders the strength of the human spirit and her desire to “put a story forward that reminds us that there’s something to be hopeful of, something to know we have inside ourselves that we can count on and remember when we feel hope is lost or we’re not sure how we’re going to move through these dark times.”
The film opens with a stirring air battle scene as Zamperini and fellow crewmen take on adversaries, barely making it back to the base in their badly damaged bomber.
“He’s just one in a million,” said O’Connell of Zamperini, whom he met before shooting began on Unbroken in Australia.
“Just one in a million of that generation that somehow suffered during this war, one of millions. But what separates from him . . . is that ability to actually find a solace, a content place to forgive. I see a triumph in that personally. I see an overall victory.”
Jolie, a mother of six, said she kept her sons Maddox, 13, Pax, 11, and Knox, 6, in mind when she worked on the film, careful to tell the often-brutal story while sticking to a PG-13 rating.
“I often thought about my sons and I was very conscious of what would be too much for them, what would make them turn away,” Jolie said, pausing to sip from a small bottle of Perrier.
Aware she needed to balance the bleakness of being lost at sea and the prisoner-of-war camps in the “very hard story” with hopeful moments or she’d risk overwhelming the audience, Jolie decided to “make the most of the sunrise, make the most of anything that could be uplifting,” onscreen.
“That is also true to the experience of life,” Jolie explained.
“We knew it was a very hard story so it was important to make it as stunning as possible for the audience to be able to absorb the experience of it,” she added. “But yes, when it came to the violence we wanted to make it PG-13, we were determined to do so.”
Like her first directing job, the 2011 Bosnian war-set film In the Land of Blood and Honey (she also wrote the script), Unbroken is a passion project for Jolie. Both films seem to dovetail with her humanitarian and refugee work, much of it addressing postwar suffering as a UN Special Envoy of Refugees.
“I’ve met many survivors, extraordinary survivors . . . it’s made me a better mother.” ANGELINA JOLIE DIRECTOR OF UNBROKEN
“I’m sure it did even if I was not conscious of how,” said Jolie. “I’ve been very moved and needed examples like Louis in my life. I’ve met many survivors, extraordinary survivors who have gone through more than I can begin to imagine, and the way that they carry on is extremely inspiring and it’s taught me so much about life, and it’s made me a better mother and a better person.”
She had become devoted to Zamperini and was heartbroken when he died at age 97 in July. He was able to watch a rough cut of Unbroken on Jolie’s laptop and she was grateful he saw most of the film.
“Louis never had an ego,” Jolie said of the man who came to call her “Jolly” as they spent time together.
Zamperini’s goal in seeing his story come to the screen wasn’t so everybody could know more about him, Jolie explained.
“He believed in spreading the messages of the things he learned in his life and he wanted to help people and be inspirational to others, and really help pull people through. That’s what he loved to do.” Jolie also showed Zamperini O’Connell’s audition video before casting him. Zamperini suggested the actor “tone my language down,” O’Connell laughed.
“The boys (co-stars including Garrett Hedlund, Domhnall Gleeson and Finn Wittrock) had sheets of alternative things to say when you want to swear,” said Jolie, grinning at O’Connell, adding it was part of her vision for the drama to make a movie that was true to its time period.
“We felt it was a very classic story and to pay respect to that generation it should be done not in a modern way and not in any kind of sloppy accidental way, but that it needed precision and scope and strength in its visuals,” she explained.
There’s a lot of talk of forgiveness surrounding Unbroken and it’s hard to imagine how anyone could forgive as Zamperini did.
“Well I don’t personally (believe) in blind forgiveness,” she said, adding “I think there needs to be justice . . . somebody should be held accountable for what was done.” As for Zamperini, “he faced so many horrible things and he decided to use it as a tool to lead to teach by example, to help others to know how to face the obstacles in their life,” she said.
“He made a positive out of these horrible experiences, which is really not something that . . . I don’t think I can do it. I don’t think it’s common. It’s something to certainly consider.”
Jolie, who lives in the hills above Los Angeles with husband Brad Pitt and their children, didn’t realize that Zamperini had been her neighbour for years. It added a note of destiny to her decision to make the film.
“I was looking around and . . . I think I was interested in something that meant something to me,” Jolie said when considering her followup to In the Land of Blood and Honey.
“I was not looking for something that included bombing raids and shark attacks. And that came with it. The size of this film came with it. There was an epic to technically tackle, but the story was the story, and no matter the size and what it took I felt very compelled to tell the story.”
Jolie is continuing to direct and has just wrapped on the 1970s-set By the Sea, which she also wrote and in which she stars opposite Pitt. Making that film was “a walk in the park in comparison to Unbroken.”
Next, she’ll direct another true-life story, Africa, about paleoanthropologist and conservationist Richard Leakey’s fight to save the African elephant from ivory poachers.
With the numbers of female directors still relatively small, does Jolie see her work behind the camera as something of a statement?
“I didn’t approach this work as a female director, I approached it as a director,” Jolie said, adding it’s important to not always hear gender mentioned alongside the word director in talking about filmmakers.
“But certainly it’s wonderful when you realize how few female directors there are,” she said with a smile. “It’s nice that we’re growing in numbers.”