Angelina Jolie has opened up about healing, trauma and finding her strength again while discussing her recent films, with some of her comments drawing attention to her difficult divorce from Brad Pitt.
Angelina Jolie talks about ‘healing after trauma’
Angelina Jolie has dropped what insiders see as a big hint that her deeply personal new film, about “healing after trauma,” reflects her own recovery from the painful aftermath of her relationship with Brad Pitt, as per Radar Online. The 51-year-old Oscar winner wrote and directed “Without Blood,” a war drama starring Salma Hayek and Demian Bichir, based on Alessandro Baricco’s novel of the same name.
As per Radar Online, Jolie has said that her film is for people seeking “answers and healing after trauma,” themes that insiders say come after years of highly publicized legal and family battles following the breakdown of her marriage to Pitt, 62.
A source familiar with Jolie’s work told Radar Online, “Angelina hasn’t explicitly said this film is about Brad, but when she talks about trauma, healing and returning to the place where you broke, it is impossible for people close to the situation not to see parallels with what she has lived through. She is basically dropping a huge hint it is about her healing after her split from Brad. Her experiences have inevitably shaped the person and filmmaker she is today. Her new film is a story about surviving trauma and searching for answers, so there is naturally going to be speculation that some of Angelina’s own healing is reflected in it.”
Jolie and Pitt separated in 2016 after being together for 12 years and married for two. Their breakup led to a lengthy series of legal disputes, including a battle over their French winery, Château Miraval. The former couple share six children, Maddox Jolie-Pitt, 25, Pax Jolie-Pitt, 22, Zahara Jolie, 21, Shiloh Jolie, 20, and twins Knox Jolie-Pitt and Vivienne Jolie, both 18.
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Jolie speaks about her film and its message
Jolie told People about her film, “I was drawn to Alessandro Baricco’s beautifully written novel because it examines universal truths about conflict, memory and what it is to be human. I chose to stay very true to it. My approach was to shape and edit more than to write.”
Speaking about who she believes will connect with the film, Jolie said, “The film is for anyone who seeks answers and healing after trauma. The book discusses how we often ‘return to where we break.’ That’s true for almost anyone. No one knows what someone else has gone through. To sit and talk with openness and honesty, is a beginning.”
Jolie also praised Salma Hayek’s performance in the film, saying, “It’s a very challenging piece for actors who had to be very brave and emotionally open. Knowing her well helped to direct her but there was so much about her as a woman and a performer I was surprised by still and so impressed.”
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Jolie’s personal journey also reflected in ‘Couture’
As per Variety, Jolie’s personal journey has also been echoed in another of her projects, “Couture,” in which she plays Maxine, a low-budget horror movie director juggling a fashion film commission and single motherhood during a divorce, when she receives a breast cancer diagnosis.
Writer-director Alice Winocour said she wrote the film with Jolie in mind, saying, “I needed someone special, someone that would have a special connection with the story. Angelina has a lot in common with the character. She’s also a director and she has been through this – not cancer but everyone knows her story. So I felt like it’s for her.”
Jolie was never diagnosed with cancer. However, she underwent a preventive double mastectomy after learning she carried the BRCA1 gene, which increases the risk of breast and ovarian cancer. Her mother died of ovarian cancer at 56, and she also lost her grandmother to the disease, as per reports.
As per Variety, Jolie also opened up about her divorce from Pitt, saying, “I think my fighting spirit is finally back. I lost it for a bit. I got kind of taken down a little bit and it’s coming back in large part thanks to my children, who are now older, and encouraging it.” She added, “My kids are almost all 18, so now they want to see me traveling the world, they want me to get out and do things. They know me more than anybody, and they still like me, which says a lot. I think they’re very encouraging of me kind of getting back to aspects of myself that maybe I hadn’t felt as free to do.”