‘Broken’ by split with Pitt, Jolie found the strength to move on
In Angelina Jolie’s new movie, she plays another one of her emotionally complicated protagonists, leading the actor to open up in a new interview about how she drew on her personal experiences of being “broken” to inform the role.
One of these experiences came during Jolie’s messy, painful and highly publicized divorce from Brad Pitt, as she alludes to in the interview with “Entertainment Tonight.” “We all have times in our lives where we feel broken, and I was in a period like that,” Jolie admitted to “ET.”
Jolie, 45, finalized her divorce from Pitt, 57, in the spring of 2019, although the ex-couple’s bitter legal battle over custody of their six children rages on.
A month after the divorce judgment, Jolie began filming “Those Who Wish Me Dead,” where she plays a smoke jumper and wilderness expert named Hannah Farber, who is struggling with PTSD after an on-the-job tragedy.
Jolie says her character must find “the strength within” to help a young boy escape assassins who killed his father. “I’ve had my share of things that made me feel — you know, hard to speak too much about it,” Jolie continued, obviously unwilling to say much more about her breakup with Pitt.
She described the feeling during that period as “just overwhelming or broken.” Jolie also said she felt “very lucky” to have had an opportunity to find her inner strength to continue.
“I wish all women could have this at times in their lives,” Jolie said, explaining that she also felt “broken” after her mother died from cancer in 2007.
“It’s a part of something when you feel you just want to kind of hide under the covers or you’re not sure what you got left in you,” Jolie continued.
“You get an opportunity and I would encourage anybody to do it. You’re not a film actor, doesn’t matter. Go somewhere, see what you got in you. Put yourself against the elements, or try something you’ve never tried and kind of try to rediscover that strength within.”
Jolie revealed how the divorce meant she needed to press pause on her work as a director so she could be at home with her children.