The 39-year-old actor-turned-director offers thoughts on what spurred her to make the World War II-era Unbroken and how her multi-philanthropic efforts help “plead the case” for the unfortunates of the world
By Susan hornik & matt Scanlon
It took 58 years for the story of World War II veteran Louis “Louie” Zamperini to find its way from the dead letter office at Universal Studios to full production under the directorship of Angelina Jolie. The studio bought the story of the U.S. Olympic distance runner and prisoner of war, thinking that the tale was not only incredible in its own right, but tailormade for the big screen. Universal held onto the movie rights, even as various producers and even a director with chops as substantial as Clint Eastwood’s attempted and were foiled into getting production into motion. By the turn of the 21st century’s first decade, the tale of this veteran, then in his mid-80s, looked to be lost forever…at least until the power and persuasion of Hollywood’s most celebrated actress took hold of the proceedings.
Spurred by Laura Hillenbrand’s hit 2010 biography of Zamperini, Unbroken, the 39-year-old actorturned- director set to filming work in the fall of 2013—with miles of story to cover in a standard 120 minute time frame.
Zamperini, along with two other crewmen, miraculously survived in a raft for 47 days after a near fatal plane crash, only to be caught by the Japanese Navy and sent to a prison camp where torture was commonplace. Jolie was inspired by the veteran’s testament to the power of the human spirit, and made her tribute to him the second feature she has directed for the big screen.
“After I read Laura’s book, I knew I wanted to direct the film,” Jolie said in a press event for the movie. “Like the millions of readers who find themselves unable to put down the book once they start it, I was drawn into the incredible story of Louie’s journey and Laura’s brilliant recreation and rich documentation of pivotal events that shape the last century.
“Louie’s generation came out of the Depression,” Jolie continued. “They were tough, strong, worked hard, and had a sense of family and community that sustained them through tremendous adversity. When they were called on to serve their country, they were young boys, but they went. They did such a service for us, no matter how frightened they were, no matter how far from home.”
On Directing
The Oscar-winning actress, screenwriter, author, wife and mom to six children (with husband Brad Pitt), activist, and United Nations humanitarian found her way into directing somewhat haltingly.
Jolie’s first feature-film directorial effort, 2011’s In the Land ofBlood and Honey, came to fruition after she wrote its screenplay, a private exercise that stemmed from her international humanitarian work. An intense love story set in the 1990s Bosnia, the behind-the-camera role was an unexpected one for the veteran of 45 on-screen turns.
“I hadn’t planned on directing at all,” she explained. “I figured that one day I would stop acting and spend time at home with my kids…I ended up directing the film almost by default because I was shy to let it go anywhere else.”
Jolie’s directorial debut received strong reviews and a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film, which is part why she searched years for a second project to be involved with.
“I would be lying in bed thinking I want to do something meaningful,” she said. “But what was it? I needed some help, some guidance….I wanted it to be something I would love and care about, because directing takes so much dedication, so much time away from your family, and much more effort than acting. You have to be completely committed and fully engaged. I knew I wouldn’t be any good at directing another film unless I was really moved by the subject matter and felt it was important.”
After Zamperini met Jolie, however, it almost seemed like husband Brad Pitt had a dose of competition.
“I’d only seen her on the news because I don’t go to the movies anymore,” Zamperini offered at another film promo event. “But I knew that they called her the most beautiful girl in the world. Then she came to the house.
What a doll! What a sweetheart! I saw right away she’s got not only beauty but brains. She’s very considerate, and has a charitable heart. I thought, ‘What else do you need?’”
The director and the 1936 Berlin Olympics 5,000-meter event competitor maintained a close relationship until Zamperini’s death in July of last year. (He was able to see a rough cut of the final Unbroken film on Jolie’s laptop while in his hospital bed.)
“There’s so much pain in the world,” Jolie observed. “I feel that we need stories like this today—the journey of a man finding his way through darkness and into the light—stories that can help us, inspire us, show us something remarkable and make us feel positive about life.”
Producer Matthew Baer, who’d been spearheading Zamperini’s story, added that, “Angie and I had a three-hour conversation on the phone about the project. She is a brilliantly creative person. I heard her passion and knew her as a filmmaker of force and will. I knew she was the person to do this.”
Jolie loves message films, too; about her turn in the recent Maleficent, she observed, “I hope the girls, especially, will see the importance of having a sense of justice and a sense of what’s fair and what’s worth fighting for. They’ll see that they can be warriors and at the same time soft and feminine and deeply feeling, with all the complexities women have.”
A Non-Profit Focus
Arguably even more so than her acting career, Jolie is and has long been a warrior for philanthropic interests.
She received the 2013 Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award for her work as a special envoy for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UN HCR ), as well as for various worldwide humanitarian causes she supports.
She is the first recipient of the Global Citizen of the Year Award from the United Nations Correspondents Association, and received the UN HCR Global Humanitarian Action Award in 2005. In February 2007, she was accepted by the nonpartisan think tank Council on Foreign Relations for a special five-year term designed to nurture the next generation of foreign policy makers.
Also named Goodwill Ambassador of the UNHCR in 2001, Jolie carried out more than 50 field missions to some of the most remote regions in the world to highlight the plight of millions of refugees and advocate for their protection.
After years of dedicated service to the cause of uprooted populations, she was appointed Special Envoy to the UN by High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres in 2012.
In this expanded role, she advocates on behalf of the world’s displaced, representing UN HCR and the High Commissioner at the diplomatic level by engaging with others on global displacement issues. Jolie helped push through the Unaccompanied Alien Child Protection Act and founded The National Center for Refugee and Immigrant Children, an organization that provides free legal aid to asylum seeking young people.
In May 2012, Jolie co-founded the Preventing Sexual Violence Initiative with then British Foreign Secretary William Hague. The campaign, which seeks to end the use of rape as a weapon of war, has attracted the support of more than 155 nations. In visits to Bosnia, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, Jolie has highlighted the political and humanitarian consequences of war zone rape and advocated practical and legal measures to end impunity and help survivors. In June 2014, she and Hague co-hosted the Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict, the largest ever international gathering on this issue. In October 2014, at a ceremony in Buckingham Palace, Queen Elizabeth II conferred upon Jolie the rank of Honorary Dame Commander of the Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George, for extraordinary services to British foreign policy.
About her aspirations to make a difference in the world, Jolie offered simply during a recent interview with Britain’s ITV News that, “I’ve just always gone wherever I felt I was needed”. “When I started working with the UN, I loved working in the field. And then there was a point when I realized I was only so useful in the field because somebody had to go to Washington and plead the case, and so then I would do that. I don’t know what that means or where it will lead me, but I want to be effective…I want to help make change.”
