At the San Sebastián Film Festival, Angelina Jolie presented Couture, a drama by French director Alice Winocour vying for the Golden Shell. Portraying an American filmmaker facing illness and personal upheaval, Jolie drew on her own experiences, including her preventive surgeries following a high genetic cancer risk.
Angelina Jolie, 50, was in San Sebastián to promote Couture, directed by French filmmaker Alice Winocour, which is competing for the festival’s top prize, the Golden Shell.
She plays Maxine Walker, an American film director facing divorce and a serious illness while navigating Paris Fashion Week and embarking on a romance with a colleague, played by French actor Louis Garrel.
The Oscar-winning actress, honored in 1999 for her role in Girl, Interrupted, said she related personally to the struggles of her latest character.
Angelina Jolie underwent a double mastectomy in 2013 and later had her ovaries and fallopian tubes removed to reduce her high genetic risk of cancer, which claimed the lives of her mother and grandmother.
Visibly moved, she said she often thought of her mother while making the film.
"I wish she was able to speak more as openly as I have been, and have people respond as graciously as you have, and not feel as alone," Jolie said.
"There's something very particular to women's cancers, because obviously it affects us, you know, how we feel as women," she added.
Tackling freedom of speech, she mentioned: "Anything, anywhere, that divides or, of course, limits personal expressions and freedoms and, from anyone, I think is very dangerous." "These are very, very heavy times we're all living in together," she added.
With AFP
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