Angelina Jolie is set to return to the screens in a flick that resonated with her a bit more than any other before: Couture, a movie about a mother and filmmaker who finds herself working on a Paris Fashion Week runway film while getting divorced and learning of a breast cancer diagnosis. Turns out, filming this made Jolie feel “very vulnerable.”
The reason behind it hitting so close to home for the actress, who herself underwent a preventive double mastectomy in 2013 because she carried the BRCA1 gene, was her family history: Her mother, the late Marcheline Bertrand, was a victim of ovarian and breast cancer, and so were her aunt and grandmother, all of whom died of the disease.
In an interview with Variety at the premiere of the upcoming film at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), the Maleficent star got candid about her experience of the same, sharing,
I felt very vulnerable. […] I feel like it’s such a personal film. It felt so private that in my mind, it’s probably the one film that doesn’t feel like a film.
As for how the mother of six dealt with that feeling of vulnerability? Well, Jolie sought comfort by wearing one of her mother’s necklaces in the film, as she herself revealed during the interview.
Angelina Jolie Also Felt Working on Couture Was ‘Quite Healing’ in ‘Many Ways’
While she felt vulnerable, Angelina Jolie also talked about how working on Couture and playing a woman struggling with her breast cancer diagnosis also felt “quite healing in many ways.” Speaking with Variety, she acknowledged that while she knew signing onto the film would “bring up many personal things,” she also recognized the fact:
I have always found the heaviest films tend to have the most loving sets. There’s something quite comforting about having real conversations and having real feelings with a shared community. It was quite healing in many ways because you look at the other faces of the people on the set, because one in three people have cancer, and most everybody’s been in a hospital room with somebody they’ve loved. Everybody on set has lost someone they’ve loved.
If anything, this very feeling of shared experiences was what Jolie feels made them all feel connected and close to one another, as a crew. She continued,
You recognize that life is fragile and time goes quickly, and people pass away that we can’t imagine the world could exist without… It’s hard not to feel very close to a crew and other actors in this kind of a piece.
It’s worth noting that, in one of the most emotional scenes of the movie, Jolie’s character, Maxine, is told that not only does she have cancer, but her doctor also advises her to undergo a double mastectomy since the disease is so advanced. That must have made everything resonate even closer to the Mr. and Mrs. Smith actress.
Angelina Jolie Has a Heartwarming Message of Hope for Cancer Patients
At the September 7 premiere screening, Angelina Jolie also got candid about her mother’s time as a cancer patient, getting emotional while talking about it. She recalled the one time when “we had had a dinner” and people were asking her mother “how she was feeling,” which had her mother remarking,
All anybody ever asks me about is cancer.
But this comment from her mother made her realize something very simple that many often forget: That people with cancer have normal lives besides their disease as well. Continuing, she then extended a heartwarming message of hope for those facing cancer. Jolie said,
So I would say, if you know someone who is going through something, ask them about everything else in their life as well, you know? They’re a whole person, and they’re still living.
Couture is written and directed by Alice Winocour, and is yet to get an official release date. It stars Louis Garrel, Ella Rumpf, and Garance Marillier in prominent roles alongside Jolie.
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