Angelina Jolie Opens Up About Maleficent, Motherhood, and More! #MaleficentEvent

It’s not often one gets to sit down with an actress like Angelina Jolie, and find out so much about her as an actor, as a mother, and see the person behind the face we see on the big screen.  However, that’s just what I did on May 20!  I had the extreme pleasure of chatting with Angelina Jolie about her role as Maleficent, how her kids helped her find her “voice” for the role, and so much more.

To say I was impressed with Ms. Jolie, is an understatement.  It wasn’t in a star struck kind of way, though I was that too, but I was so impressed with Angelina as a person, mom and a humantarium.  Being impressed with her as an actress, is a given, she is very talented, which I already knew.  However, if I had never seen any other film before Maleficent, it alone, would have solidified her amazing talent.  So, today, I am going to share a little bit about Angelina, her humanitarian efforts, and of course all about her taking on the role of “The Mistress of All Evil”

As Angelina entered the room, with 25 mom bloggers, neither she nor us knew what to expect. Heading to the table she mentions “Oh, this is so fun. I was so curious what this group of “Mommy Bloggers” was. This is fantastic!” Did we just get called fantastic by Angelina?? At this moment I am trying to keep the professional composure externally and internally I am jumping up and down. I will say, the first thing I noticed is Angelina is stunning, composed, and has a very beautiful personality. I knew this interview was going to be my favorite, out of all the ones I have done so far.

When asked how she came to this Disney movie, after having done all kinds of movies, Angelina said

“I was moved by it, as a mother. I was also really moved by it because I thought of myself as a little girl, and I thought of all the kids I know. I just think of feeling different, feeling like an outsider, feeling abused, and this ideal if you’ve ever been abused, you put this wall up.

You become darker, you’re not able to be this soft person that you were born to be. And you wonder what could possibly ever bring you back? The thing that brings her (Maleficent) back is very much the thing that brought me back. So, I was very, very connected to it.”

At this point, in the interview, I knew I was not going to be able to speak, because from that portion alone, I was almost in tears (and in fact as I write this I am). I understood exactly what she was saying, and precisely the reason why I connected to Maleficent’s character, having been abused before, in a high school relationship. Hearing the compassion for Maleficent’s character in her voice, just solidified she was perfectly cast. Speaking of Maleficent, wanted to know so much about how she prepared!

On knowing who Maleficent was before the movie

“I was fascinated by her. I didn’t really identify with the princesses, when I was a little girl. It’s like a little kid seeing Marlene Dietrich for the first time. It was like seeing this elegant, powerful woman who seemed to be having a great time. I was a bit fascinated by her. Then there was a rumor that the movie was going to be made, I got a call from my brother. He was like, Ang, you’ve got to make a call to Disney, you got to try to get in on this. So, I was very happy when I got the call. So just the idea of a Disney movie, having children, and just being a big kid myself, and wanting to do a little bit of that was fun. I really didn’t know how could you possibly make a story where people have any connection to, or empathy for, somebody that curses a baby? It’s just, it’s going to be impossible. I think she did an extraordinary job.“

It can’t be easy, getting the perfect voice for a villian, so how exactly did Angelina find the voice she used in the movie? With help from her kids of course!

“I always tell stories, I’m sure we all of us have a few voices. I was giving them baths, where a few nights in a row, I would tell them stories in the bath. I was trying out voices and a few they’d say, please stop. Then, sometimes, they’d listen and they’d kind of be more engaged. I kept trying and trying and trying.

Then I did that voice and they couldn’t stop laughing. So, I kept doing it more and more. I had to do it the other night for bedtime. So, for the look and everything, I would kind of run it by them. If it made them happy, or made them smile, or they were interested in it, you know, then I knew it was right.“

Humanitarian efforts are a big part of Angelina Jolie’s life. How doe she do all that she does, and how can we, as regular moms do our part?

“Well I think the most important thing we do is we raise our children with love, compassion, to become great people, thoughtful of others and that’s the most important thing. If everybody did just that, we’d have a very different world. We need to encourage our children’s education and help them to be conscious of the world around them. I think mothers have the most powerful role.

I think beyond that there is so much to connect to and there is so much that can be done. As you see now with the situation with the Nigerian girls, that’s not government, that’s the masses speaking out. And pushing for government change. It sometimes doesn’t feel like every voice counts, but they really do. There’s a conference in June I’d love you to be aware of that I’m doing, the Foreign Secretary of England, June 10-13, 2014. It’s called PSBI, it’s the largest summit ever to end sexual violence in conflict and it’s in England. It’s open to the public. We’ve realized that it’s not just governments, it’s not just NGO’s, everybody has to come together. So NATO will be there, peace keepers will be there, governments will be there. It’s open to the public, NGO’s, victims, and doctors will be there. So everybody, together, will spend four days. Um, and I think that’s what these things take, all of us very tightly working together.“

At this point, I could see the beauty of Angelina, wasn’t just an external beauty, it was a beauty that is soul deep, wanting to be the best she can be for her family and help others throughout the world. Next, we wanted all the details from Angelina on costuming!

According to Angelina, costuming took about 2.5 hours at the end of the day! The headpiece was not heavy (that was a big shock, looking at it in the movie, I would have thought different). She said it was actually very lightweight. She also wore detachable horns, because her costume made her a told of 7.5 feet tall (some serious basketball dunking could be done in that) and going through doors, she knock herself down or snap the horns. That’s when the detachable horns came into play! In the end, Angelina was really happy with the way the costume came out, she felt the soul really came through the design.

Last, but certainly not least we wanted to know how it was working with Vivienne, her daughter, who plays toddler Aurora in Maleficent

“I though what four or five year old, little girl, is not going to be scared of me in person. That my character can be really mean to and say things like, I don’t like children? We realized it was probably Viv. It took us a while to make sure that that was an okay thing to do. The first day she had to catch the butterfly and, like any four year old, she just decided she didn’t want to. So there’s some really, really funny outtakes of Brad and I. I’ve actually got the stick with the blue ball, that’s supposed to be the butterfly and I’m kind of running in front of her. Then, Brad’s off the edge of the cliff, trying to like dance and make her jump into his arms. And she made us work all for that scene. The people at Disney did say it was the funniest dailies that they’d ever seen. Tt exists somewhere, I haven’t seen them, I should get them. It was lovely to do it and work with her.“

What I learned in this interview is that Angelina Jolie, is such a wonderful person no matter what role she is taking on in life or on the screen. I know this is a long interview, but it was so wonderful I didn’t want to leave anything out, I wanted you all to get to know Angelina just like I did that day! I do have a little bit more of the interview Now, be sure to head to theaters on May 30, to check out Maleficent for yourself. I can almost guarantee, you’ll walk away loving it!

**Thank you to Disney for brining me out for this event.  While most expenses were paid, all opinions and views are my own**

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Toni Patton

Owner at A Daily Dose of Toni

Hi! I'm Toni. I am a happily married, christian, momma of 3 living on Florida's sunny Gulf Coast. I am a lifestyle blogger and Seint Arist. I started blogging when my last child was born as a way to share my love of all things travel, cooking, beauty, recipes, and more. Now pull up a chair, grab a glass of sweet tea and let's get to know each other. I truly hope you enjoy getting A Daily Dose of Toni!

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