Even Angelina Jolie Doesn't Get Automatic Green Light on Her Movies
Just because you’re the most famous actress in the world doesn’t mean you get to do anything you want in Hollywood.
Angelina Jolie tells Entertainment Weekly that she had to really lobby for the directorial gig on Unbroken, which tells the unbelievable true story of World War II POW Louie Zamperini (played in the film by Jack O’Connell). “I had to pitch really hard,” Jolie tells the magazine in this week’s cover story. “I was on fire. There was no stopping me. I was completely insane.”
The actress, who won an Oscar for acting completely insane in Girl, Interrupted, and made an impressive directorial debut with 2011’s In the Land of Blood and Honey, said she was kept in suspense as Universal, the film’s distributor, deliberated on who would helm the adaptation of Laura Hillenbrand’s 2010 bestseller.
She recalls being particularly nervous in the weeks leading up to Christmas two years ago, and how it probably affected her husband, Brad Pitt. “Poor Brad — you just couldn’t talk to me,” she says. “I started wrapping everything— even little things that went in the stocking. I couldn’t just sit there and wait for the phone. So I was like, ‘I’ll wrap this whistle! I’ll wrap this candy cane!’”
With Unbroken garnering Oscar buzz and set to open Christmas Day, Jolie can just chill out this holiday season.
Photo: Universal
