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Entertainment February 21, 2017
Angelina Jolie’s “Good Morning America” interview from Cambodia is peppered with pained sighs and awkward pauses.
She is clearly over being asked about her divorce from Brad Pitt while promoting a movie about the Khmer Rouge genocide. Such is life for an actress.
But is it really fair that this mother-of-six and UN refugee agency special envoy is asked whether she still believes her ex is a “wonderful father” – comments previously made – while on the line about “First They Killed My Father”?
Some might say yes, she signed on for a life of fame by becoming an actress. But it feels wrong to pry for juicy details while Jolie is trying to discuss a true-life account of the genocide of two million people.
Angelina Jolie’s interview about “First They Killed My Father” was made awkward by questions about her divorce. Image via Giphy
And when she is clearly uncomfortable in doing so. When co-anchor George Stephanopoulos asked Jolie if her family was “healthier” since filing for divorce this past September, she was noticeably unnerved.
The actress followed a pointed sigh with a drawn-out pause before answering, “We are, we are focusing on the health of our family.” Things got even more awkward when he asked Jolie if she still believed Pitt to be “part of the family” – following her divorce filing and a child abuse investigation against Pitt, which has since been cleared.
But Stephanopoulos wasn’t the first to tread such territory – and he certainly won’t be the last. BBC World News’ Yalda Hakim asked a similar set of questions in an interview in Cambodia released the day prior.
And Jolie, who was emphatic and emotional just moments before as she described her love for adopted son Maddox’s birth country, suddenly became quiet and reserved. “I don’t want to say very much about that,” Jolie said, when asked about the “incident” that led to her filing for divorce from Pitt after two years of marriage and over 10 years together.
Angelina Jolie looked pained after BBC’s Yalda Hakim asked about the “incident” that led to her divorce.
The film “First They Killed my Father” – written (screenplay), produced and directed by Jolie, and distributed by Netflix – is based on a book of the same name by Loung Ung, whom Jolie calls a “dear friend.”
Ung was five when she and her family were forced to leave Cambodian capital Phnom Penh by the Khmer Rouge, a brutal regime led by Pol Pot from 1975-1979.
Jolie has called the movie a “thank you” to Cambodia. “I thought that this war that happened 40 years ago, and what happened to these people, was not properly understood,” she said.
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And though she wanted to shed light on the country’s history for others with the Netflix film, Jolie has said she also wants it to help Cambodia itself. “I hope it helps the country speak more,” she said, explaining that many survivors “haven’t told their children their story.”
Let’s just hope Jolie’s greater message isn’t hidden by whether or not she’s “over” her celebrity ex.
