Straight from the heart

Given her status as one of the most sought-after stars in Hollywood, shooting a movie with Angelina is a complicated undertaking. Add Brad to the equation and the media attention can go out of control.

In India where most of “A Mighty Heart” was filmed, the paparazzi turned one shooting location into something that looked like a mob scene.

Director Michael Winterbottom had never witnessed a more ferocious media frenzy.

Michael Winterbottom, director: It just looks crazy and unbearable.  And they seem incredibly patient and calm about it. They’ve obviously had to put up with for years.  And so, it’s very strange.

Producer Andrew Eaton: To work with as big a star as Angelina, and to maintain the integrity of the whole thing.  You know, and be chased by the paparazzi and do all the—everything that goes with that.  But still protect the core… I don’t know how these guys cope with it on a day-to-day basis. Brad says “welcome to my world,” and it’s just crazy and insane.

Ann Curry, NBC News: One of your co-stars says so many mean things were being written about you while you were filming the scenes in India that he stopped reading the paper because it was going to affect his ability to deal with your character on screen.  How do you handle this?

Angelina Jolie:  I’ve managed to just focus on other things.  I mean, if anything, I get most upset because I wanna read a good paper first thing in the morning.  And if I see a lie about myself flash across the front of the  cover, I don’t think much of the rest of the newspaper.

Angelina says she doesn’t get distracted by the lies because she’s stopped reading publications that print them.

Curry: Oh, so if I asked you, for example, right now what’s something that’s untrue that you would like to say right now is not true, you wouldn’t know what was untrue that was written about you?

Jolie: No.

Curry: Nothing?

Jolie: No.  I mean, I can assume.  You know, I know there’s a cycle of certain things that they keep rewriting or whatever, but I can assume things [have been] made up.  But no, I haven’t a clue. And why would I, you know?  There’s nothing I have to hide or defend. I’m gonna live my life.  And there are times when people wanna try to attack me and I don’t know why, but they will.  And that’s okay.

Curry: It’s ok?

Jolie: Well, there are other things I’m more concerned about.

In “A Mighty Heart,” Angelina’s character Mariane was also hounded by the media as she desperately waited for a sign that her husband was alive.

Jolie: I just felt that much more sad for somebody who is not used to it and would have to go through something so painful and then have to deal with that as well. 

So I can only imagine, but I really wouldn’t compare us because that is such a difficult situation—

Curry: Yeah, but you did have to play a woman under stress, being—

Jolie: I played it.  But I’m just saying  I just haven’t gone through what she’s been through.  And so I just think being stopped by paparazzi is one thing.  Having cameras in your face when your husband is kidnapped or he has lost his life is something that is totally different and can never be compared.

Curry: It’s interesting to have you be in a movie that honors journalists for bravery, makes them heroic in some ways, given the other side of the kind of paparazzi world that surround you...

Jolie: I think you see both sides in the film.  And I do think there is a line, you know?  I think I’ve gotten upset with certain journalism or focused on silliness and tabloids more for just that there’s a focus on something as silly when there are so many other important things to be talking about. More than just, “Oh, that’s a personal attack against me.” That’s not really what upsets me.  What really upsets me is what that’s doing. What that cycle is, how many things are distracting from other really important things. 

I love great journalism.  I appreciate it.  I love a good, you know, I love good news stories.  I love great books.  I love great articles.  I appreciate them so much, and they’ve been part of my education as as a woman.

Angelina says the work of Mariane and Daniel pearl is an example of the ideal that journalism can aspire to. 

Jolie: They were just journalists who believed in dialogue, who believed in truth, who believed in working really hard and believed that the world was their home, who worked together, traveled together, shared information together, supported each other.

Brad echoes Angelina’s conviction. He says it’s one of the main reasons he decided to put his money behind the project.

Pitt: I believe in the power of journalism.  I mean, democracy doesn’t work unless the public’s informed.  And to make informed decisions, you have to have an understanding of the dynamics of a situation. And journalism at its best as Danny and Mariane were after, does bridge gaps and creates dialogue.

Jolie: There’s a great, obviously really, really wonderful and important journalists out there.  And it is a very important thing to be and do, if not the most important ‘cause how you interpret a story can then make the difference. So it would be a very powerful thing to be.  And when misused, it’s very sad.

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