Angelina Jolie: Mom First Than Maleficent
By Fernando Mexia
LOS ANGELES-Angelina Jolie assured today that she was positively surprised by the interpretation of her daughter Vivienne in "Maleficent", the first film in which she shares a scene with one of her children, an experience that was very familiar but that she does not intend to repeat .
In "Maleficent", Disney's version of her animated classic "Sleeping Beauty" (1959) which premieres this Friday, the actress dresses up as the evil fairy who casts a spell on Princess Aurora, whom she brings to life in her most Vivienne Jolie-Pitt child.
Jolie, 38, and her partner, Brad Pitt, 50, thought twice before letting their 5-year-old daughter make the leap to the big screen "because it's the world of cinema and everything that," he told the press in Los Angeles to which he explained that his participation in the film served to solve a "casting" problem.
"This happened because there were children who came to the shoot and saw me. I went up to say hello to them and they cried. One child froze completely, and then he started crying, and I felt very bad. We realized that there was no way to find a 4- or 5-year-old girl that I could be tough with and not see me as a monster," Jolie said.
At the time, Vivienne was around and "she seemed like little Aurora. Everyone thought the answer was there, but I had to go home and talk to daddy (Pitt) because she's our girl," the actress said.
The couple, she said, has always been clear that they want their children, three biological ones - among them Vivienne - and three adopted ones, to be part of "mom and dad's life" and to be around the movies, "not to be remain on the sidelines" and have a "healthy relationship" with that reality, without going any further.
"Brad and I never wanted our children to be actors," Jolie acknowledged that she does not reject the idea that her children try to make a living in Hollywood like their parents, although she sets conditions.
"If when they get older they decide to be actors, I will ask them not to be the center of their lives, to be an aspect, but also to do many other things because I don't think it's healthy for it to be the center of your life," he admitted. .
"Maleficent" was, however, a production in which the Jolie-Pitts were very involved.
The actress, who adopts a cold and hard countenance, wears black and wears horns, practiced the scenes at home with her children to seek her reaction.
"Sometimes they laughed, sometimes they cried. They even hid in a corner," recalled Jolie, who was struck by how her Vivienne worked on the scene they have together, even if the first day of shooting was not very promising.
"She had to catch a butterfly and she didn't feel like it. I was holding a pulley with a ball on the end (representing the butterfly), dad was at the bottom of a cliff making faces and his brothers and sisters were carrying her over there. finally did and did not want to do it twice," said the mother.
Jolie attended press day at a Los Angeles hotel with her children, who waited patiently for her to finish her agenda for the day.
"We travel everywhere together, they're home schooled. When I feel like I'm doing too much, I do less. I'm in a position where I can afford not to link jobs," she said.
Pitt and Jolie try to fit their shoots so that one of them is always resting while the other is filming so as not to leave their children unattended and, although it is not always easy for them to meet that schedule, she downplayed that challenge.
"I am not a single mother with two jobs trying to survive every day. I have a lot of support, I have the financial means. Women in my position should not complain," she declared.
For Jolie, "Maleficent" was a professional challenge because she stepped out of her comfort zone to play a well-known character in a children's movie.
"I don't have a theatrical voice, I don't do funny things. It's crazy. I'm a fairy," she said while confessing that it was a good opportunity to do something as an actress "for playing", for fun, without taking herself so really.
Angelina Jolie was involved in the project as a lead, as an executive producer and played a key role in designing her costumes and Maleficent's aesthetic.
"With this character, there is no middle ground, if you're going to do it you have to go all in," she said.
