Angelina Jolie’s fire-and-mayhem movie, Those Who Wish Me Dead, comes out in theaters and HBO Max on May 14. I keep hoping that Jolie will have done some major magazine interview to promote the movie, her first on-camera starring role since Maleficent: Mistress of Evil in 2019. (I guess she was on camera for Come Away last year, but no one saw that movie and I think her role was more supporting than lead.) While Angelina seems proud of this movie, she’s also being honest about why she’s taking more straight-up acting jobs these days: because she wants shorter jobs and she likely needs the money. But, as Jolie explains to Entertainment Tonight, she’s not just taking any old acting gig. She has to be drawn to the characters, and the characters have to be broken.
Those Who Wish Me Dead marks Angelina Jolie’s return to true onscreen action in more than a decade. But for the actress, the human side of the movie is what drew her to the project, as she reveals in an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at the thriller.
“I am drawn to people who have been through something and are broken and then find their way forward and overcome it,” Jolie says on set. “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.”
In Those Who Wish Me Dead, which hails from writer-director Taylor Sheridan (Yellowstone), she plays Hannah Faber, a smoke jumper grappling with PTSD after experiencing a tragedy on the job that she personally holds herself responsible for. “She’s a very broken person who carries a great deal of guilt,” Jolie says.
When Hannah comes across a hapless 12-year-old boy (Finn Little) after he’s unwittingly witnessed a murder, she takes it upon herself to protect him from the pursuing hitmen and the fire that soon rages around them. Jolie trained four days a week for the role and did many of her own stunts on set, as well as learning the skills required of a real-life fire jumper.
“On its surface, it feels like a great thriller, a great adventure across an unusual terrain inside a great fire,” she explains. “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.”
Yeah, she’s partly just embiggening a somewhat straight-forward action-adventure-thriller movie with lots of action sequences and pyrotechnics. But I buy that even with action movies, Angelina is looking to connect with her character, and those connections are being forged through her own traumas and guilt and pain. Brad really put her through some sh-t and it feels like it’s taken her this long, nearly five years, to really figure out who she is post-Pitt, following all of that toxicity and abuse.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
I just love her. That’s all.
same
I don’t think I can watch this after the horror of the Cali wildfires since 2018. It didn’t affect me directly, but still hurts just to think of the losses they created. Sheer horror.
I love Angelina and I’ll be watching this film despite the fact that fires already freaked me out BEFORE living through the last few years of CA wildfires and having to evacuate twice in the last 3 years.
Oh, geez, I am so sorry you had to experience all that but thank goodness you are ok.
I second that. My husband is from S. California and his family had to evacuate in Villa Park, so I have never lived in that type of scenario but I can understand how frightening it is. My poor SIL had to pack up my in-laws and 3 dogs for an undetermined stay away order, and my in-laws were in their ‘90’s no less. The tangible fear in her voice struck me as something I had never heard from her and I was terrified for them. I hope that you guys never have to live through these types of scenarios again.
But Angie, what about the way you break the people in your life?
@LALA I guess Female First must have left their psych ward doors open for you to escape and spout BS shade. .
Laure Dern has thoughts on this im sure
Yes, Laura Dern’s thoughts are “I shouldn’t be the the pot calling the kettle black.”
Angelina is on reportedly good terms with all her exes except Brad. Now Brad Pitt, he who is an abusive drunk/alcoholic who has a habit of smearing his exes via his powerful PR team and media pals is the very definition of someone who breaks people. Just ask his kids. Older adopted ones want nothing to do with him and the courts still require that his visits be supervised with the younger ones. Ask those poor people in New Orleans who were robbed through Brad’s Make it Right Foundation and were ignored when they complained. Ask his exes how they felt when his people smeared them in the press after he was no longer with them.
I’d like to introduce you to Occam and his razor. Smart man.
Lala…who exactly has Angie broken? Before you spout drivel like this make sure you have receipts.
@realistic Laura Dern isn’t the example you think it is. Firstly, she too has been marred as a “homewrecker” allegedly getting involved with a man who’s wife was pregnant. Secondly, this line of argument and calling women homewreckers is entirely misogynist and means men have no accountability in the situation because it’s perceived as the woman’s fault – men aren’t helpless puppies
Also didnt numerous posters on this website go hard on Lily James for her affair with a married man? Its amazing the same action done by a different person results in a very different reaction from people.
Funny how Laura Dern backtracked after her father did an interview confirming that Angelina didn’t homewreck his daughter and Billy Bob because they had already broken up.
Courtney Cox and Jennifer Aniston confirmed there was no cheating with Brad and Angelina before their separation.
I’ll take the word of Laura Dern’s father and Jen Aniston’s best friend over any tabloid media spin any day, but nice try there.
@Keri: Wow, I didn’t know that. This whole time I thought that situation with Laura Dern was something that really happened, but that people just needed to move on from. The fact that Angelina didn’t even do what she was accused of makes it all look even more petty.
I think Pitt and Aniston were done, done, done well before he even started filming with Angelina, so technically AJ wasn’t the homewrecker. However, I do believe they had an affair. Look up that Celebitchy article about Brad Asked for Forgiveness and Jennifer Aniston Gave It and the comments about Burbank Hotel, etc. But mostly just from watching the Mr and Mrs Smith behind the scene YT videos. They were flirting like crazy; it was brazen.
Agree
And there are many on this site who didn’t go hard on Lily James but laid the blame almost entirely on the husband. That said you are right about certain actions being judged differently when done by a different person. I hope Heidi Bivens is doing well in her life and prospering. I hope she wasn’t broken by the actions of another woman.
This whole thread makes me feel like we took a time machine back to the mid 2000s…
She hasn’t broken anyone? All the marriages were confirmed to be over by their respective spouses and spouses family before Angie came in the picture. Laura Dern and Jen Aniston have done exactly what Angie is said to have done? I’m not sure where you’re getting this from.
Oh honey, get your tired self back to Female First and stay there. 2005 is ancient history. All Brad has had in his life since Angie dumped him is a series of cheap, tawdry relationships that were over almost as soon as they began.
Love Angelina Jolie and will be supporting her action movie. 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
Angie never attack her children on an airplane, in a drunken rage.
So true. Then you stand.
Just came to say: loooove her!
I wish I could watch this movie to support AJ but movies about fires are no go.
Love Angelina can’t wait for this movie
Me too!! I love action movies that support female and POC as leads, as we need more of them. Though I am very sad that Regina King will not be resuming her role in Watchmen which I am so enchanted with and found her to be an excellent action hero too!! And Ms. King killed it on the Oscar red carpet!! She is the epitome of the Queen, with Beyoncé too!!
I’m looking forward to this film. I’ve given up on ever seeing Salt 2, so I’ll compensate with this one. It’s good to see her open up more and more about her feelings. Although she is almost always vague, you can tell she was incredibly hurt and it has taken a long time to get to a good place.
SALT 2! (Salt & Pepper? A Salt? Salt E. B. Ach?) My friends and I are with you 100%. We have been waiting too long and that kind of film would be just the kind of entertainment we need these days. Who do we need to petition to make that happen pronto?
There are two versions on Salt on the blu-ray, the theatrical release and the extended version. The latter cut, which should have been released, is much better than the theatrical version, wraps the whole story up, and leaves no necessity for a sequel. Watch it on blu-ray or DVD If you have it.
That movie looks good! Fun and full of action. Good pick
I love this woman!
I had no dog in the hunt that was this whole kerfluffle from Aniston to airplane, but I came away with the clear impression that she’s a fantastic actress and a dedicated mother. Mr. Ponytail and his silly affair with already married thirst trap was a guaranteed eyeroll from beginning to end. And that poor academic he had no regard for is another case of that cornball’s idio. The professor was engaged, but he allowed those stories about a possible relationship to run without clarification. What a douche.
I think the hurt she feels came from his attack on Mad and her which the later is in question now. The second is that people did not care that he did that.
She has had to battle him, his lawyers and his PR machine. I give her credit for not breaking!!
What’s up with people speaking about her pockets. This woman had enough available cash laying around before making multi million dollar deals with Disney and Marvel to buy a 24 million dollar home.
And Dern and Aniston should go sit down somewhere please!!!!