We are in a Golden Age of Angelina Jolie editorials, let me tell you. While I didn’t care for Angelina’s Vanity Fair profile, the Mario Testino photos were gorgeous. Then the Variety shoot yesterday was stunning. And now this DuJour Magazine editorial might be the best photoshoot yet!! Go here to see the full slideshow – it’s Angelina solo, and then Angelina posing with Jack O’Connell, the actor playing Louis Zamperini. Jack is super-handsome in these photos too. Ten, fifteen years ago… Angelina and Jack would have been a couple. They would have been torrid and bad and sexy and it would have been amazing to watch. But now they are just friends and coworkers. As for the profile… it’s another great piece. Go here to read. Some highlights:
Jolie on looking for projects & finding Unbroken: “I was looking for something to do and studying what was out there as a director. Directing is very different from acting because it takes more than two years of your life, so it has to matter—really matter—in a different way. Every time you visit a studio, they give you the projects” that have been in limbo, she says, “and I saw these four sentences on Unbroken. I went home and I said to Brad, ‘I’m really curious about this film—it’s a triumph of the human spirit finding faith and forgiveness, and this man’s life seems so interesting.’ And Brad said, ‘Oh, honey, that project has been around forever.’ ”
Fighting for Louis’s story: “I fought for it for months and it became less about wanting to do a film and more that I wanted to be close to be somebody like Louie. I felt I needed to go on that journey, that it would make me a better person if I could. I was begging not only to be the director—I was begging to have the opportunity to spend two years of my life focused on Louie Zamperini.”
Jolie on wanting to mother the actors: “All the boys had to starve—even the extras—and we’d have days when there were 200 young men just standing in the heat. The mother in me wanted to stop and put everyone under a tent and give them water and just call it a day. The other side of me had to do my job and push it forward.”
Making Unbroken for her sons: “In the back of my mind, I wanted to make a film that would help my boys become better men. They know Louie’s story, so I’m able to say to them that it’s not bad to be full of fire—it’s what you choose to do with that fire.”
Her future as an actress: “I’ve never been comfortable as an actor; I’ve never loved being in front of the camera. I didn’t ever think I could direct, but I hope I’m able to have a career at it because I’m much happier.” Is the plan to give up acting entirely? She smiles. “Absolutely.”
Working on ‘By the Sea’: “The tricky thing is directing myself and directing Brad. It’s hard, dramatic material, and we’re balancing. It’s a heavy film, and it’s not easy for us. But even as you struggle through it, you’re in the trenches together and you don’t expect it to be easy. We’re challenging each other and that’s a really good thing.”
Married life: “I think when it’s right, it feels the exact same [as before].”
[From DuJour]
There are lots of quotes from Jack too, I just wanted to focus the excerpts on Angelina. Jack talks about how “very f—king brutal” it was to lose weight and shoot the POW scenes and the athletic scenes. He also talked about learning that one of his friends had been diagnosed with cancer and really needing to be around friends and family just before the shoot, and Angelina got a helicopter and organized a big group of people to come out for Jack, and how much all of that meant to him. It’s a good read, but they repeat some stuff from the Variety piece yesterday. What I like is that Jack doesn’t seem to be playing the “too cool for all of this” game. He seems to genuinely want to go out of his way to support this film. It’s nice.
