Oscar-winning actor Angelina Jolie, who is at Spain’s San Sebastián Film Festival with Alice Winocour’s “Couture,” was asked a timely question at the festival’s press conference: What do you fear as an artist and an American? The actor sighed deeply and took a few moments to answer before saying, “It is a very difficult question.”
“I love my country, but at this time, I don’t recognize my country,” said Jolie. “I’ve always lived internationally, my family is international, my friends, my life… My worldview is equal, united, and international. Anything anywhere that divides or limits personal expressions and freedoms from anyone, I think, is very dangerous. These are such serious times that we have to be careful not to say things casually. These are very, very heavy times we are living in together,” concluded the actor.
It’s important to note that Jolie’s comment on freedom of expression comes just days after Disney’s ABC took Jimmy Kimmel‘s popular late-night show off its schedule “indefinitely.” The decision came after one of the biggest owners of TV stations in the U.S., Nexstar Media, said it intended to preempt airings of the program following remarks the host made about the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
This is the first time Jolie attends the Spanish festival. She joins other A-list names such as Colin Farrell (“Ballad of a Small Player”) and Jennifer Lawrence, who will pick up a career achievement Donostia Award, San Sebastian’s highest honor, on Sept. 26.
“Couture” is playing in competition at the Basque festival. Set during the madness of Paris Fashion Week, the drama follows the intertwined lives of three women: Jolie’s Maxine, an American filmmaker who discovers she has breast cancer; Ada (Anyier Anei), a model escaping her predetermined future in her home of Sudan; and make-up artist Angèle (Ella Rumpf).
Jolie was also asked about the parallels between her real life and her character in “Couture,” given that the actor decided to have a double mastectomy and have her ovarian and fallopian tubes removed after learning she carries the BRCA 1 gene, which significantly increased her chances of developing both breast and ovarian cancers.
“I lost my mother and grandmother very young, so I chose to have a double mastectomy about a decade ago,” said Jolie. “Those were my choices. I don’t say everybody should do it that way, but it’s important to have the choice. I don’t regret it. Anybody who’s gone through something feels vulnerable and alone. There is something particular about women’s cancers because [they] affect how we feel as women.”
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The actor said the film also carries an important message “to anybody who is with a woman they love,” which is to speak about desire and sexuality within a post-diagnosis context. “When I read that [Maxine] was diagnosed, I had an idea where it was gonna go, [but] I certainly didn’t think it was gonna end the way it ends. I didn’t think desire would still be a part of the film. It’s important to live and be desirable as a woman, and for those who love a woman to know that.”
French actor Louis Garrel (“Little Women”), who plays Jolie’s love interest in the film, was very frank when echoing his co-star. Garrel said the film speaks about cancer via sex, adding: “Generally, when you speak about cancer, especially breast cancer, movies use a pathetic tone.”
“And it’s not pathetic at all. It is also connected to desire. We are stranger than that as human beings. Even if somebody lost their breast, it can be more exciting erotically. You have to understand that men can be eroticized in multiple ways. We are excited by such strange stuff sometimes. Don’t be afraid of anything. The minds of men are more original than what the magazines say,” the actor said to rupturous applause in the room.
Jolie held back tears when an audience member thanked her “for always speaking about Palestine and people who are voiceless.” That same audience member brought up the fact that the actor wears a necklace in “Couture” that belonged to her mother, actor and activist Marcheline Bertrand, asking what Jolie thought her mother would have to say to her character in the film.
“It’s very hard to speak [about] my mother,” Jolie said, visibly emotional. “[Maxine] would love my mother. I did wear my mother’s necklace. I also wore her ashes. I thought about her a lot. I think everybody in this room has sat in a hospital room. Maybe some of you have been through heavier things. In the film, I would think about these moments, and wish [my mother] had this community. I wish she were able to speak as openly as I’ve been and that people would respond as graciously as you have.”
The actor emotionally concluded by saying her mother “would have told Maxine to live every day and focus on life.”
From Variety US