Maleficent" explores the untold story of Disney’s most iconic villain from the classic “Sleeping Beauty" and the elements of her betrayal that ultimately turn her pure heart to stone. Driven by revenge and a fierce desire to protect the moors over which she presides, Maleficent cruelly places an irrevocable curse upon the human king’s newborn infant Aurora. As the child grows, Aurora is caught in the middle of the seething conflict between the forest kingdom she has grown to love and the human kingdom that holds her legacy. Maleficent realizes that Aurora may hold the key to peace in the land and is forced to take drastic actions that will change both worlds forever.
The film stars Angelina Jolie as Maleficent, Sharlto Copley, Elle Fanning, Sam Riley, Imelda Staunton, Juno Temple and Lesley Manville.
ANGELINA JOLIE: Hello.
Hello. How are you?
ANGELINA JOLIE: Good, how you doing.
It’s a knee knocker.
ANGELINA JOLIE: It is a little cold in here.
It might seem a little odd, but I was just wondering, will you get in the full costume with the headdress? Is there sort of a Norma Desmond thing that takes over in your ...
ANGELINA JOLIE: Yes.
Because I was reading a little bit, like Sunset Boulevard in that.
ANGELINA JOLIE: Well I’ll take that as huge compliment. I would love to think so. Uh, yes of course, I mean you can't ... I think that was part of the thing with this role, is you realize that there’s no halfway, that if you’re gonna do it, you can't kind of do it and kind of ... you’re gonna have to just to fully get into it and enjoy it. And the original was done so well and her voice was so great and the way she was animated was so perfect that if anything, I just was so worried I’d fail the original. But I practiced a lot with my children, my voice and my ... and when I got them laughing, I figured I was on to something.
Got them laughing, is that what you were going for? Because it’s kind of like ...
ANGELINA JOLIE: Well they laughed, they cried.
They hid in a corner.
ANGELINA JOLIE: They did hide in the corner for ...
This is an interesting Disney film because it has an important and loving parent character, I don’t think any of the others do.
ANGELINA JOLIE: And isn’t it odd that it comes in this shape?
But isn’t it great?
ANGELINA JOLIE: But isn’t it great, thank you, I think so.
Now your own daughter was in the movie, and I’ve read that you were maybe a little reluctant to do that or ... let’s talk about that.
ANGELINA JOLIE: Well, Brad and I never wanted our kids to be actors, we never talked about it as a thing, you know. But we also want them to be around film and be a part of mommy and daddy’s life and for it not to be kept from them either, just to have a good healthy relationship with it. Umm, and this came about because there were kids that would come to set and they would see me and I would go up and say “hi” to them and they would cry. I actually had one child completely freeze and then cry, it was like terror. And so I felt so bad, but we realized that there was no way that we were going to find a 4 or 5-year-old that I could be as strong with that would not see me as a monster, and suddenly there was Vivie running around looking like little Aurora and everybody kind of thought, “oh, the answer’s right there,” but then I had to go home and talk to dad and we both sat around thinking, it’s such a ... you know, it’s our kid, so it’s so sweet, the idea of it’s so cute to us as mommy and daddy but then the fact that she’s in a film and suddenly it’s the world and film and all that, took us a second but ...
Well, how’d she like it? How’d she work on the set?
ANGELINA JOLIE: She was good. The first day was the day she had to catch the butterfly and she just really didn’t feel like doing it. So, so I actually was holding the pole with the ball on the end and bouncing up and down and kind of dancing trying to make her laugh, and daddy was on the edge of the cliff she had to jump off, kind of like making faces and doing all these things, and her brothers and sisters were kind of edging her on, and you know, she eventually did it but she was just taking her sweet time and not wanting to do it twice certainly, because that was, you know. But then when we got to ... to our scene, we’d kind of practiced it a little bit at home where I’d say, like “okay, I’m gonna say go away and then you try to, you know, get back” ... So by the time we did that, when we did it together we had a good time, we played together and it was ... I was actually shocked that she was doing so well, you know, inside I thought, oh, she went back and hit her mark, it’s frightening.
Will you have your kids in the other movies after this experience?
ANGELINA JOLIE: I just want them to like it like this, I want them to do it for fun only, and if, when they get older they decide to be actors, I would just ask that they ... that that’s not the center of their lives, that that’s an aspect but that they also do many other things with their lives and are involved in many other things. Because I don’t think it’s a healthy focus as a center of your life.
What part did timing play in this? I mean if this project had come up five years ago, would you have considered it?
ANGELINA JOLIE: I don’t know. I mean it’s such a great project I imagine I would always have considered it, but I think it was really ... after having directed and thinking that I wasn’t sure if I wanted to act or how good I’d be ... this challenge of it wasn’t returning to act, it wasn’t anything normal, it was so ... such a crazy idea and I was so challenged by it and I ... my kids are now all watching all these movies and wanting to play with mommy and it just ... it was perfect timing to have them all on set, playing, being a part of the adventure with me, and for me as an actress to not do something where I’m taking myself so seriously and I’m trying to, you know, do something for myself and my art and ... but just play. Just remember what it is to play and entertain and try something bold.
Motherhood had everything to do with it then?
ANGELINA JOLIE: It had a lot to do with it, and then also the artist in me felt it’s good to do something bold every once in a while, that you’re not comfortable with that you haven’t done. I was actually ... you know, I was a bit nervous to take her on. I just thought, what ... you know, I don’t have a big theater voice, I don’t do things that are kind of comedic, I don’t, you know, this is such a crazy idea I’m a fairy. You know, I’d come home and “how was your day honey?” “I was a fairy, I don’t know.” But somehow you have to ... it’s great to jump into things that you’re not sure of and you haven’t done and it’s a little scary, that’s what we have to do as artists.
What would a nonparent underestimate about what actually appeals to kids in movies? Like what appeal do your kids, you know, watching some footage if they’ve seen it, that maybe I wouldn’t guess, you know, oh, like kids specifically love this about Maleficent?
ANGELINA JOLIE: Oh about this movie, I don’t know.
Or any movie I guess.
ANGELINA JOLIE: Well it was interesting, like my boys saw an early cut of Unbroken the other day and I thought they would be talking about the sharks, and instead they asked me about one of the characters deaths. And I was very confused by that so ... not confused, I was surprised that ... you know, I think, I think the depth, what children can handle and what they’re really interested in is much deeper than I think people assume. And it think it’s why sometimes we make things too simple for them because we, you know, I think a film like this, people say, “is it too dark for children?” It’s not, they want to understand things that frighten them, they want to see dark things that happen and they want to see how to rise above them. They don’t want to be hidden from all things and everything sweetened. I think that’s something that always surprises me about children.
I’m also here for the Long Beach and the Pasadena papers, and my editor’s, “why don’t you just say something about Mr. Zamperini,” because, you know, he’s just, so, you know, some part about that’s balancing out, he’s gonna be leading the Rose Parade.
ANGELINA JOLIE: I know, I love that, love that. I’ll say anything about Mr. Zamperini. He is ... you know, he’s my neighbor so the great thing is I can stand on my roof with binoculars and we can kind of ... He’s just one of the most extraordinary people I’ve ever met, and he’s somebody who, you know, many people know his life or know her book, but when you sit with him it really is ... I didn’t really have grandparents or I didn’t grow up with my father so maybe there’s something to that as well, just really getting to know an older man and getting the wisdom. This is this generation’s greatest generation, this is the last few years we’ll have them with us and I think to learn as much as we can from them is so important because the world has changed so much since their time and I think, especially when it comes to just who we are and our relationship to each other. You know, during his time to be of service to your community, to your family, to your country was normal, it’s not exceptional. And now people are more I think aware of what they want for themselves and how to do something ... the easiest way to get something done. Whereas before it was so much the pride and the hard day’s work and the responsibility, because they’re coming out of depression and going to war. So I think it’s not just that he’s heroic and he’s exceptional, he is of the generation that we must learn as much as we can from in order to make this next generation strong enough.
Could you describe the process of getting ready, the prosthetics, the makeup, everything?
ANGELINA JOLIE: And I’m excited for him to be the leader of ...
What you had to go through?
ANGELINA JOLIE: It wasn’t that much, the creation of it took a little time to figure out how to do the horns, you know, even how to get them on my head and how do they stay on the head ... We used my hair as kind of my braids to nail it down to different things. Well, it was a headpiece, of course, with the horns, it wasn’t like a headband. So we kind of put my head in ... my hair in these balls and then you put the headpiece over and you pull the braids through and then you use it to anchor it. And then we had different horns. At first they were too heavy, then we got them softer, then we found ones that would snap off because I kept banging into things, and, you know, it just all slowly came together because there was ... and we tried different things and some of the things didn’t work, you know. We kind of tried her different ... we had feather hair at one point. We went about crazy ... well she’s a bird maybe she has feather hair instead of ... Uh, but we finally go to it, we just wanted to have a character that when you’re watching it, when you’re seeing the dramatic scenes you feel that you can watch her and I can perform without people staring at the makeup, so we wanted to really find a balance so it was kind of an enhanced face but it still felt like a real face somehow. Not a real face ... that a soul could still come out through that face.
I didn’t understand the nose, I mean your nose looks great.
ANGELINA JOLIE: Thank you.
But I’m ...
ANGELINA JOLIE: Oh why I have a nose piece? Well my nose is a bit, just ... it’s not very strong, it’s a fine nose but it’s not ... it can be like a cute nose. But I wanted her to have a stronger nose, she has a bit more of a ... she has a little piece to make it less of a slope and more of a bump, just to give her more ... it was kind of ... we wanted everything to have like angles and not ... take all the softness kind of out of my face and make everything sharper and stronger.
Is Maleficent a character you could imagine returning to in the future?
ANGELINA JOLIE: Nobody’s asked me that. Uh, I don’t know, I can't imagine, I’m not dead at the end of it so ... she’s still there. I don’t know, I don’t know. I loved playing her, I loved playing her, so.
Why did you feel so strongly in the first place that this was the story that really you needed to tell?
ANGELINA JOLIE: Well, I think I wanted to do something that was ... that my children can see, I wanted to have fun and explore different art and performance in a way I hadn’t done. But most of all, I read Linda’s script and I was really moved by it and I actually got very emotional when I finished it and I thought it was one of the best scripts I had read in a long time because of the issues it dealt with and I thought it would ... it was, in fact, an important story to tell.
I know you’ve come out the other side of it as something you were so proud of but if you return the second time do you feel a little different, did you feel like it was ... were you more sort of assured in a comfortable way again?
ANGELINA JOLIE: Yes, but I jumped into something so much bigger, so it was daunting in a whole different way because suddenly ... you know, Blood and Honey I wrote, it was in a few rooms, you know, there were certain things to tackle and certainly the politics of it which you balance and many, many things like that. But getting into Unbroken, it suddenly ... you know, two plane crashes and shark attacks and 47 days at sea and three prison camps, and the 1936 Olympics and, you know, it races ... You wake up in the morning and you think, God there’s a way to do that, isn’t there. Like directors ... there’s a way to direct races, this isn’t just show up at work and, you know, cover ... cover it this way or that way. Like this is actually something I have to really understand, I have to ... with the bombardiers and the ... I have to really understand how they went in formation, who was where, what happened, how can ... So it was just so much more. Yeah, it was just so much more that ... there were just days I didn’t know if we would be able to track it all and accomplish it all. Because we didn’t have that much money, we didn’t have that much time. So, yeah, it was kind of like ... it was a new scare.
Sort of to that same point, I understand you were very instrumental in sort of ... something Robert Stromberg to take on this which is a massively scale project.
ANGELINA JOLIE: Well, it was Disney’s choice. And, you know, I think they felt strongly that to hire somebody ... he hadn’t directed before but he was very into Creation of World and the script was so strong that we kind of felt that all pieces would come together because we had such a solid script and even though he hadn’t directed before, the script would kind of help in a way, direct itself and the actors would feel close to their characters, and he did really have this focus on the creatures and what the world would look like and the feeling, and I’m sure ... I haven’t seen the 3-D but I’m sure his history would be instrumental in making that work.
I just have one last question about children. Your kids are gonna watch this, I just wondered if you had thoughts about the generations of other kids who would watch this.
ANGELINA JOLIE: The generations, like the ages or the ... what do you mean?
Well, movies kind of stick around the same way.
ANGELINA JOLIE: I hope so, well I hope so.
I mean does ... do you not have any sort of a overview of were cinema fits into society at this point?
ANGELINA JOLIE: You know, you just never know, especially when you make something, you hope you make it the best it can be but you don’t know what’s going to last or what’s going to ... it is ... this is the first day that I’ve been talking to people these last two days who’ve actually seen the movie, you know, so I, you know, you just don’t know if the things you intended came across yet. So this will be the first time, umm, when I see it with an audience it’d be the first time I can feel ... everybody observing and know if it worked. And if it did, of course, I would ... I mean I would just love that. I think it is a really good story and I think it’s one that has good messages in it and it’s, you know, entertaining and all of that, but I think it’s ... when we can make stories for children that they can walk away with having thoughts about things they didn’t normally think about or learned a little something or felt heart warmed by something, then we’ve done something better.
I just have one question about your work life balance, mainly just asking because it’s a huge issue in NY where the mayor’s wife saying she struggles a bit, you’ve got six kids, this amazing career, how do you make it work?
ANGELINA JOLIE: Yeah, well that was hard because, because for the most of the time the kids went back and forth sometimes and we’d each have some but for most of the time I had them all and it was hard. But, you know, I’m not a single mom with two jobs trying to get by every day. I have much more support than most people, most women around this world and I have the financial means to have a home and help with care and food and ... so I don’t, I don’t consider it a challenge.
How do you prioritize it?
ANGELINA JOLIE: No, my kids ... I mean they’re here upstairs, you know, they’re not ... They homeschool so we travel everywhere together, they were on set most every day for Maleficent. Uh, we travel everywhere together and, uh, I, you know, when I feel I’m doing too much, I do less if I can and that’s why I’m in a rare position where I don’t have to do job after job, I can take time when my family needs it and I can make sure ... and I can edit now, it’s the nice thing about being a director, I can say, “I can only get into the room after the kids are at school and I have to be back for dinner, and they’re coming for lunch.” So, I don’t feel, I actually feel that, you know, women in my position when we have all at our disposal to help us shouldn’t complain when we consider all of the people who are really struggling, don’t have the financial means, don’t have the support, and many people are single raising children, that’s hard.
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