Angelina Jolie hints Brad Pitt divorce left her ‘broken’

Angelina Jolie shed some light on how she has been feeling since her divorce from Brad Pitt, whom she is still in a custody battle with.

This week the actress, 45, talked to Entertainment Tonight about how shooting the adventure film Those Who Wish Me Dead was ‘very healing’ for her.

The Oscar winner was ‘drawn’ to the film’s character – firefighter Hannah Faber who suffers from PTSD – and playing her taught Jolie how to ‘stand back up,’ she shared.

The 45-year-old star has Maddox, 18, Pax, 17, Zahara, 16, Shiloh, 14, and 12-year-old twins Knox and Vivienne.

She is fighting with Pitt over custody of the five younger kids as Maddox is an adult and can choose which parent to spent time with.

But it wasn’t the physical side of playing PTSD-stricken fire fighter Hannah Faber in Those Who Wish Me Dead that drew her to the project.

It was the chance to depict someone getting back up after being left ‘broken.’

She told ET: ‘I am drawn to people who have been through something and are broken and then find their way forward and overcome it.

‘As an artist, it’s very healing to play people like that. She’s been very healing for me, because you just get so broken and then you stand back up,’ the performer added.

‘[Hannah is] a very broken person who carries a great deal of guilt.’

In the film, smoke jumper Hannah takes it upon herself to try and protect a 12-year-old boy (Finn Little) who witnessed a murder and Angelina insisted the story is more than just a ‘thriller’.

She said: ‘On its surface, it feels like a great thriller, a great adventure across an unusual terrain inside a great fire. Underneath it, it’s a really emotional film. It’s about people who have a great impact on each other and change each other. Emotionally and practically, they go through the fire.’

The By the Sea filmmaker recently admitted she had returned to acting and taken on the role because her split from Brad meant it wasn’t fair on her family for her to take on long directing projects for the time being.

She said: ‘I love directing, but I had a change in my family situation that’s not made it possible for me to direct for a few years.

‘I needed to just do shorter jobs and be home more, so I kind of went back to doing a few acting jobs. That’s really the truth of it.’

Earlier this month she said she relished getting ‘pretty beaten up’ while making Those Who Wish Me Dead. 

‘There’s nothing about this character that trained in martial arts or did anything special. I get pretty beaten up through this,’ the Tomb Raider star explained. In the film she has to wear a 70lb firefighter suit at times.

And playing an expert smoke jumper – the name given to specially-trained firefighters who parachute into the blazing wilderness – gave the brunette beauty more respect for firefighters the longer filming went on.

She told Entertainment Weekly magazine: ‘The first day we were in the fire, [I noticed] the heat and how quickly the winds would change and how quickly the fire would suddenly take to a tree that you weren’t expecting.

‘Our respect just grew day after day for these people on the front lines and how difficult this work is.’

While Angelina has been acting since she was just seven years old, she believes her decision to turn to directing in recent years has improved her performance by giving her a new perspective.

She explained: ‘In very technical terms, I’m more aware of what the director needs, and what other challenges they’re facing, and how many different pieces are moving.’

And as a result, she had a lot more patience and appreciation for the difficult stunts and set pieces in the movie.

She added: ‘Maybe when you’re younger and you’re having a huge day where you have to be cold and wet and emotional and crying, you’re thinking about those things.

‘Now you’ve directed and you’re older, and you realize that while you are going to be freezing and crying, there’s also pyrotechnics going on, or multiple other situations. It pulls you out of yourself.’ 

And Angelina couldn’t suppress her maternal instinct on her latest job as director Taylor Sheridan had to call her out for being too nice on camera to Finn Little’s character, Connor Casserly, who her alter ego was tasked with protecting.

Angelina said: ‘My character is not maternal by nature. Sometimes Taylor would correct me because my behaviour towards a child was different from [Hannah’s] behaviour towards a child. It took me a little bit to treat [Little] badly, but I got there!’

The filmmaker previously admitted she thinks she’s ‘lacking’ in the skills to be a traditional stay-at-home parent.

She said in February: ‘I was never very good at sitting still. I feel like I’m lacking in all the skills to be a traditional stay-at-home mom. Even though I wanted to have many children and be a mom, I always imagined it kind of like Jane Goodall, traveling in the middle of the jungle somewhere. I didn’t imagine it in that true, traditional sense.’

The film hits theaters and HBO on May 14.