Angelina Jolie’s Monkey Business

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What is Pax doing to Mickey’s leg? Mickey never smiles, never interacts with the kids. It is weird. I would be wanting to pick him up or kneel down and talk with him. In public Brad and Angie always want control of the kids. They have 2O ASSISTANTS and Brad is carrying 2 or 3 kids plus luggage and cell phone and Angie has a big purse and 1 or 2 kids or vice versa…….Mickey– I think Pax likes your leg. ‘HA’ Have a gr8 day ya’ll.

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Angelina doesn’t let nannies to take her children in public ( a former nanny tells it)
But everyboby knows she has 4 nannies.

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I think Z is carring a bear, not a monkey.

We have the curious george monkey she’s carrying into the school.

The teddy Z is carrying out doesn’t look the same except for the color.

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Exploring New Roads: ‘A Mighty Heart’ Q&A with Adventurous Angelina

Lisa Collins and Brigid Brown
Hollywood.com Staff

Playing it close to the heart, stunner Angelina Jolie takes no prisoners, assuming the real-life role of Mariane Pearl, whose life was irrevocably changed the day her American husband, journalist Daniel Pearl, went missing in Pakistan. Jolie, as the then pregnant Mariane, dives head-first into the gut-wrenching, highly publicized odyssey.

In the prologue of Mariane’s A Mighty Heart memoir, she states, “I write this book for you, Danny, because you had the courage of this most solitary act: to die with your hands in chains but your heart undefeated.” In bringing the unflappable, modest Mariane to life onscreen, Angelina released some of her own invisible, celeb-laden shackles, that were restricting her emotional and creative growth.

A thriller, love story and cautionary tale that unites fiction and reality through memory, it would take a compassionate and worldly actor to tap into this complicated “”space”" and “”place”" where A Mighty Heart resides…and so along comes the magnetic Angelina, perhaps the best ambassador to fit the bill. Hollywood.com explores Jolie’s bold journey into a blurred reality, in which her megawatt smile was, finally, the least thing paid attention to while on set.

Hollywood.com: What did you learn about yourself from playing Mariane?

Angelina Jolie: [Pensive sigh] I learned to be even more tolerant. I think I’m quite an open and tolerant person, but I am quick to anger with situations like this. I don’t know if I’d have the strength to do what she did. When I first saw her interviews…I saw the way she responded to what had happened to her husband, and she was able to go on days later and say, “Ten other people died this month, and they were all Pakistani and they’re suffering as much as we are.” I couldn’t, when I first heard that, understand how she was able to come to that so quickly. Having gotten to know her and understand where that’s coming from–and the importance [she places] on having dialogue–I learned that big lesson: maintaining and trying to go to the higher ground to find solutions.

HW: What immediately stood out about Mariane when you first met her?

AJ: When I first met Mariane I was struck by her ability to go to a place of love and tolerance so quickly after something so brutal happened. It’s a very common reaction in people, and my own, to immediately just be so angry and so lost and self-pitied and furious; [I can be] so horrific, even, to somebody I once cared about.

HW: Sounds like Mariane’s was a rare reaction…

AJ: To somehow take a deep breath, and see the bigger picture and [think] how can I be a part of the bigger solution that will be able to heal this in the future. Not just what I’d like to see happen for me right now. What does the world need? What is going on? And, she somehow was able to do that. Maybe because she’s Buddhist? I don’t know? But, she has that way of going more universal than personal.

HW: Were you nervous to play her?

AJ: Even the first day of shooting I was very hesitant and very scared to do this movie. I didn’t feel like I’d be like good enough to pull this off. I felt it was such an important thing to do. I believe very much in the message. I want more people to read her [Mariane's] book; her journalism continues. I’d love for people to look at Danny’s writings again; and look at who they are and what they represent as a couple who really reached for finding the truth in a situation–working very hard to really do proper investigative reporting and really support each other in such a loving relationship.

HW: Do you think you could’ve done this role justice, without building a friendship with Mariane before you did it?

AJ: No, and I’m sure I wouldn’t have accepted the role without her blessing. She is an extraordinary woman…a very unique woman…and I don’t think I could’ve captured her, at all, if I didn’t know her. I don’t think I would’ve felt right doing something so personal about another woman’s family, if I didn’t know her.

HW: How did you develop the accent?

AJ: I had a dialect coach. It was a very hard accent since she’s French/Cuban. So, there was no real book exactly on how to do it. I took [to learning] it really technically. I had many different audio tapes. I had all of her interviews. I tried to close my eyes and figure out where there’s a squiggly line and where there’s a straight line. In which emotional place was she very direct? Which questions asked made her hesitate a lot? I tried to understand her through that.

HW: What sets Michael Winterbottom apart as a director?

AJ: He creates a really great open environment. He does a load of research. He takes it very seriously, especially a film like this. He makes sure everyone involved has done their research. In this case, the [real-life] people they [the actors] were playing. Then he brings everyone together in this very organic way; like the house for example–we had no lights, we had no trailers, we had no place to go–we were all just [working] in this house. So, if Archie and I were exhausted and wanted to go lie down for 10 minutes, we’d go sit together somewhere in a room and close our eyes. There was nowhere to go. And Michael could still come in and shoot that, if he wanted to [Laughs out loud].

HW: No trailer?

AJ: Every film is different. It is important to never get comfortable with any of the kinds of perks that are on some film sets. It’s important as a person. It’s important as an actor. I think there are stories, and this is one of them, that calls for everybody to be in close proximity. I do think that is my favorite way of making a film…with somebody like Michael. I think it pulls out the best in people. … I felt so connected to that crew and that cast; I feel like we became real friends and real colleagues.

HW: Did it make you feel claustrophobic?

AJ: Somehow that made us feel that we were a team and we became family; we were thrust together and never had space. Especially because of the subject matter of this film and the way they [the real-life 'players'] were, it made a lot of sense [to capture the story this way]. He filmed it in such a documentary style…

HW: You think another director might’ve handled the material inappropriately?

AJ: We joked about [scenarios] with this film before we did it, like, “”Wouldn’t it be horrible to have that director that’s all like [gesturing intently]. Mariane gets upset, and you just slowly zoom in on her face…”" I couldn’t do that–I couldn’t make a film that was heavy handed with sentiment and melodrama. It had to feel just as real as we could make it, and as close to what they felt. And that made it “”Michael.”"

HW: The story has many so layers surrounding the star-crossed couple…

AJ: It symbolizes so much, and what they taught me in overcoming fear and hate and becoming a more tolerant person. And, this need for dialogue and if there’s one message in the film it’s to find the common ground not just the things that divide us like she [Mariane] found through Captain.

HW: Dan Futterman has a very short amount of screen time, and the challenge of making you care for him so quickly and deeply. How does he achieve this?

AJ: The interesting thing about Dan Futterman is that he is a really good guy. He’s of Jewish descent–Israel. He is a writer. These are important things. These are aspects of Danny [Pearl] that are important to his family. And made Dan more organic. I think if you saw the longer footage of Danny doing interviews [you'd see] he’s so much a writer doing an interview. Dan had a great respect for Danny Pearl, as many people do. But he really took the time to try to get to know this man and people’s perceptions of him–understand all aspects of him and spend a lot of time with his parents. He took it very, very seriously. I think he’s wonderful and a joy to work with.

HW: The scene where Mariane learns her husband is dead, and then goes off by herself to have a “”moment,”" is ferociously and painfully unforgettable. Can you take us back to that day on set?

AJ: I was trying to make jokes. To be honest…I think we all cried so much that day. We had been crying for hours by the time we finished. In the end, we were wiping our makeup off and going home; everyone was trying to lighten the mood to try to breathe again. We were prepared for that day to come and none of us planned it. We never talked about it, or had an idea of how she was going to react. [Michael Winterbottom] only said, “When you get the news, I believe she went to her bedroom, so it’d probably be good to go to your bedroom. If you don’t want me to come in, then close the door. Tell me it’s okay to come in, if you leave the door open. Other than that, you know we’ll see how it goes.” We had that kind of freedom.

HW: Likely, you did multiple takes of that scene. Unleashing that severe emotion several times in a row is hard to fathom.

AJ: You stay in a very strange state of mind. Michael didn’t make me over do it. He knew when he had it and he didn’t push it past that. It’s one of those odd actor things. It’s an emotional thing. Being an emotional person. We all know there are certain things that make us emotional. Certain things that remind us of the saddest things in our lives. I was just open and tried not to think of any one thing, but I’m sure images of Danny, images of Mariane, images of Adam [their unborn son at the time]–but also images of my own mom who was sick at the time, thoughts of something happening to the people I love, my kids…you know just all of that. To sit in that space for a long time, for about an hour, it is just an emotionally very draining thing to do. But, then very cathartic when you come out the other end of it; you feel like you’ve grown up a little more and connected to something.

HW: Did that autonomy both intimate and liberate you guys as an ensemble?

AJ: Separate from that [freedom], we were all very involved in the situation. We had met all of the people involved. It was a real situation. A real little boy lost his dad. A wife is confronted with this on a night like that. And the reality of that just made us all very, very emotional that night. Then, that [scream] came out.

HW: The real story of what happened to him is very complex–almost murky at times. Is Mariane satisfied with the explanation she’s been given as to what happened to her husband?

AJ: I hate to answer for her, but I’d have to say “no.” There are a lot of questions unanswered…

HW: Were you privy to certain things that you might otherwise not want to know, for instance watching the video of what happened?

AJ: No, I would never go near that video out of respect to Mariane and to Danny. I think any acknowledgement of things like that tends to encourage that. Any attention paid to that kind of propaganda is what causes future things like that.

HW: Given it’s an independent film, but a summer release, will you be watching box office numbers this weekend?

AJ: First of all, I never do! I’ll be somewhere hanging with the kids, and I won’t know. I do live with the producer [Brad Pitt] so I may hear something [laughs]. The great thing about this film was that it was done very low budget. So we don’t have a lot of pressure. Nobody made it for the reason of making money. Even the producers themselves and the studio don’t care, really. They want it to be good, and they were really happy that there was a positive response to the product.

HW: Awards buzz has already begun. What’s your take on that?

AJ: You appreciate it and you hope it makes more people see the movie. Really, that’s the end goal. All that other stuff is just kind of fun. And icing on the cake. And lovely. If we weren’t acknowledged for anything–and no awards or anything like that ever happened–then that means nothing because we made the film we cared about.

HW: What does Maddox think that his Mom and Dad do for a living?

AJ: It’s funny because he sees a weird combination of what we do. He was aware of Brad going for meetings for New Orleans rebuilding the other day. And that’s part of what ‘Daddy does’. So, hopefully [he witnesses] a good combination of what we do. But, he knows we also make movies. He kind of finds that funny. Funny in that we tell stories, and we play dress up. He’s grown up [being] on sets. Dressing up in hair and makeup himself.

HW: What awareness does he have about A Mighty Heart?

AJ: For this one, it was strange because he knew I was playing Adam’s Mommy. Maddox kept asking me why I was dressing up like Adam’s Mommy. This is a film he obviously can’t see; and to explain why people would make a film about that [me playing Mariane] was hard to skirt that line cause it’s hard for me to tell him what I don’t want to discuss with Adam in a wrong way. He’s a talker that one!

HW: Do your kids embrace the traveling, or do they want to be in one place for a while?

AJ: They really seem to like traveling, thank God. I think, especially with young kids, you can make it…not weird, but actually really exciting–and really tough–and cool and fun. So, they seem to have a real joy. When we were preparing for this film we were in the Namibia and they went to the Bushman school for a while and loved it. Now they’re going to school in Prague and they’re doing good. We’ll see how they turn out!

HW: How did being on-location in India impact you?

AJ: It was a complicated place. I love traveling. I love being abroad. I love visiting Pakistan over the years and really wanted to shoot there. But, I understood why it was best to shoot pieces of it there, and then have the house in India. India was…a…complicated place to shoot. But the crews were amazing. And the actors were amazing.

HW: So this journey enabled you to tap into a new world of cinema?

AJ: That was a wonderful experience and that was a great reminder for the next time I do a film, I won’t look at the short-list of American actors. I’m going to think about all the great actors across the world, and remember that we should all be thinking of each other more–and working together more.

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Why is her hair so long?!!! by the way did she loose wait?

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hmmm— her hair is so long because of the movie she is doing, and yes, she did loose weight. NOW YOU CAN GO AHEAD AND BASH HER, PERMISSION GRANTED!!

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The truth:

Calm down, chillax, Angie mentioned this weight thing in an interview, it’s not like she can’t see how thin she is. She said she is working on it. Your ranting and raving about it ain’t gonna do sh*t, so just calm your ars*e down!

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107 where? | 06/25/2007 at 3:04 pm
where does it say they have 4 nannies? i’ve never seen that anywhere.

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They don’t. They just have 1. The 4 nannies thing is a myth the haters keep perpetuating. They probably read it in OK!, therefore they are sure it is the truth.

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BECAUSE THEY HAVE UGLY HAIR. Yeah yeah yeah I am racist
=============================================
Are you american?

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“You’ve Been Dancin’ with Mr. Brownstone
He’s been knockin’ he won’t leave you alone”

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120 suzi | 06/25/2007 at 3:26 pm
It said she had 4 nannies in star magazine and us weekly as for the former nannie tells it that’s from the national enquirer so you know the haters are going to believe that ****. Those trash mags are like newsweek to those idiots and believe every word they say.

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Those mags are the Hater Bible.

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http://www.hellomagazine.com/vote/canada-moststylishwoman/index.html?presentar=resultado

vote

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119 why are you using me name? and if you are talking to me no I am not american