Angelina Jolie on compassion, appreciating life and the fashion of ‘Couture’

Angelina Jolie on compassion, appreciating life and the fashion of ‘Couture’

I said I was just thinking of you at fashion shows and how cute that is. Yeah. Behind the scen notebook behind the scene. Yeah. Did you know going in that you were going to make the first fashion film about compassion? A that’s beautiful. Nice. That’s really nice. We were just talking about empathy before, right? Um do you want to uh Yes. I mean probably is also I mean it’s not really a film about fashion. It’s more like um fashion is like kind of mirror of all times because it’s the idea of a world of appearances. Um uh what is behind you know this glamorous image and perfect images and sleek images? What are the human beings behind those images? And I think it’s true for all of our characters. Angelina’s character Maxine Walker um behind the scene of fashion um like the secret ones of those women and uh and also yeah they are all like Ada also dis she’s playing a model arriving in this fashion week nothing knowing nothing about it and Ella is also hiding that’s what I like she’s also hiding the wands And uh and I think it’s um interesting to have I wanted to sew really to sew the the destinies of those three women and that’s also the title right coach but plural because it’s also stitching right it means stitches also in in France and so it’s stitches behind old coo Maxine the character of Maxine that you play Angelina is so interesting to me because she’s um she’s at the peak of her career and having this great moment and then it is gets hits with this diagnosis, this horrible cancer diagnosis and suddenly everything has to stop and it’s not her nature to stop. Um, was this kind of like a a gift this role for you in terms of processing? Very much. Very much on many levels. I mean to be anytime you work with um with artists that that that you feel close to that you learn from. you know, this this can be the most beautiful thing about being being a creative, right, is your exchange in relationship to other creatives. And this film really brought that forward with with, as we were saying, women from different parts of the world, different backgrounds coming in to discuss these and finding where we have in common. And um but for cancer, of course, it was it’s very personal to me. And I think for anybody watching, whether you’ve dealt with cancer or anything in your life or you’ve had this moment, you don’t know if your life is now going to stop and you feel like it’s going to stop and you feel like it’s over. And in many films, they treat things like this that that becomes the film, right? It becomes about the end. It becomes a it’s quite a sad film. It’s a hard film when you deal with these things. And a lot of people who have cancer have said, you know, that’s I I feel like that’s all people ask me about, right? when somebody goes through a serious illness, but it’s not the end of living with it. And so that’s why this was so important to me that I think it helped me in reading it to remind myself and hopefully remind others that this is when you can feel most alive. This is when you realize you you you you confront the fragility and and also you can fall in love with life again and and um and decide to live through it and none of us know how long we’re going to be here. Right. Right. Another aspect of the film that I put right ladies we’re all going to be in therapy. I need us to touch on this before we run out of time. The element of sisterhood and sorority in the film I think is very pronounced and unusual for to see that. Is that your experience on sets? The idea of of women coming together being supportive. I mean it isn’t always. It should be certainly was on this. It was it still is any. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it’s it’s it’s interesting the way compassion plays in the film because sometimes it’s taking grabbing a moment to to give compassion to someone else, like when Maxine’s daughter calls at the end and she’s lost and you slow down and you give her directions and you say, “Look at the museum and and it’s and you you have big news, but that’s not the quite the moment to say it.” Do you find that um does it make you feel good when you’re there for someone else? I’m sure. I mean, that’s a lot of your character. Yeah, actually I I think about compassion and competition actually there is I mean a lot of competition out there in this world and there is a lot of like really unkind behavior between people and we see that often in films but I feel like we forget that there’s also a lot of compassion and a lot of kindness and actually not a lot of unexpected sometimes support from people you you don’t expect to be around suddenly and they are there and um I feel that this is something a really important vehicle as an idea nowadays where everybody like is suspicious of each other also to show that um actually that that emotion and compassion and empathy is really part of us and can be like highlighted. Um it’s not only possible but it’s necessary. Yeah. Necessary. Totally. Speaking of support though, I I have to ask, I know that Chanel uh was a big big uh supporter in your shooting in the Ata. Do what was their uh what was their connection to the film and did they interfere at all? Yeah, I mean they were like uh really they helped me because I really discovered that world of fashion. I knew nothing about what I was writing the script and they helped me going backstage of the fashion shows. Uh thanks to them I was able to meet a lot of people from the atier. It was the first time a film was ever shot in their at that’s exciting. That’s like that’s I said I was just thinking of you at fashion shows and how cute that is. Yeah. Behind your little notebook behind the scenes. Yeah. How we live so sweet. I met I met an um one year before the shooting and I asked her question and she said go away. She didn’t want to talk to me but I was concentrating I was a kind of stalker who was questioning everyone from one year at the end people knew me because of they were thinking oh that’s the boring director who is asking question and then I was I was also yes I was very interested by all this you know backstage scene where you see all the people in the shades all those models they were about five for for the fashion shows and they work so hard and what interested me was that there are tone between two worlds and there were a lot of models I was meeting that comes from that were coming from war zone South Sudan or Ukraine or and I thought it was very interesting this idea of this world of appearances of glamour of excitement and at the same time someone that comes from really another world exactly and that’s why I came up or because I’ve always been interested in female bodies and traumas and that’s why I came up with this idea of the character of Maxine played by Angelina who also live in another world the world because she discovers this world of cancer like sure we can say cancellent because it’s another world so she’s she’s really torn also between the two worlds and this excitement and the turmoil of this big fashion thing she experienced something she’s confronted to her own death the idea of her death and so I think yes it’s those two worlds and I think we are allowed to live in two worlds two two we are allowed to live in two worlds and the collision of them there’s one other question hiding hiding our wounds understood um Maxine is uh an independent horror director I I would love to see you make an independent horror direct an independent you’ve directed you a director. Yeah. You’ve directed beautiful films and I and I love them. But but I but I do wonder maybe as a final question for everyone and thank you for these thoughtful answers. What What do you look for in a director these days? I I think it’s I think they’re approaching the that a director is approaching the work um because they really want to communicate. They’re honestly wanting to share something and connect to the audience. They they want it’s a it’s a generous, you know, intelligent and generous, I think, is important. you know, a director that knows what they’re doing is a great, you know, um has depth and and um emotional intelligence, but but also has a has a desire to say, “I want to do this because, you know, there’s a lot of things I think being made.” And if you said, “Why, not that entertainment isn’t wonderful. Entertainment is a reason to make something.” But to be able to work with somebody that has a deeper reason to make something and is very passionate about it, it’s very inspiring. That’s inspiring. and also listening. You’re giving your whole performance in French and and that must have I mean that you do a beautiful job in French but that must required a director who was sensitive to that. There’s also a lot of you know when you work with French people you know this is you get very shy speaking French in front of French people. So I had some very very kind and supportive super in French. She did all that. I did I did my job. So, but you know that so they can I mean and that’s really when especially we talk about women when when women can really come together like this it’s you it’s such a special it’s so special and I haven’t had enough of that in my life and lost my mom very young and haven’t had that I have that now with my daughters of course but uh it’s a very special and I’ve gotten older I really appreciate the connection um with other

Director Alice Winocour and cast Angelina Jolie, Ella Rumpf and Anyier Anei discuss their film, “Couture,” which is playing at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival at the Los Angeles Times Studio at RBC House.

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