Angelina Jolie reveals she made By the Sea as a means to 'communicate' with Brad Pitt

Angelina Jolie admits her 2015 film, By the Sea, was her attempt to “communicate” with her then-husband Brad Pitt. After two years of marriage and 12 years together, Jolie filed for divorce from Pitt in September 2016. The pair share six children. In an interview on The Hollywood Reporter’s podcast ‘Awards Chatter’, the 43-year-old actress opened up about an array of topics from growing up with actor parents, her professional career, her relationships and her film, First They Killed My Father, which has generated plenty of buzz ahead of the award season. [caption id=“attachment_4248997” align=“alignnone” width=“825”] Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt met on the sets of Mr and Mrs Smith. Twitter/@Aplttt[/caption] Here are some takeaways from the interview: On not taking her dad’s last name The daughter of actors Jon Voight and Marcheline Bertrand, Jolie admits she did not want to succeed in the film industry through nepotism and insisted on making it on her own. Hence, she chose not take her father’s surname. “I didn’t feel that close to my father. I felt more like my mother’s daughter when I was a child. So that was one part of it. The second part of it was I did want to have my own identity and didn’t want to walk into a room as Jon’s daughter. I wanted to see if I could get the job on my own, and not be hired for a name." On her renewed relationship with her dad Jolie admits her children have helped her build a “new relationship” with her father. “Through grandchildren now we’re finding a new relationship and it’s very, very nice. We’ve had some difficulties. Through art is a way we’ve been able to talk. It’s a common language. We don’t really talk politics well.” On the impact of Tomb Raider Though she won an Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for James Mangold’s 1999 film Girl, Interrupted, Jolie believes it was the 2001 action-adventure film Lara Croft: Tomb Raider that changed her life. “I had seen the video game and thought it was a ridiculous idea. And then they came out and said you’ll travel the world and train with the British military. I thought, who could possibly say no to that? And thank God I did, because I travelled the world and went to Cambodia and my life changed.” [caption id=“attachment_4248991” align=“alignnone” width=“825”] Pitt and Jolie in a still from By the Sea[/caption] On using cinema to save her marriage with Brad Pitt Jolie says she cast herself opposite then-husband Brad Pitt in her film, By the Sea partly to bridge the communication gap in their marriage. “I wanted us to do some serious work together. I thought it would be a good way for us to communicate. In some ways it was, and in some ways we learned some things. But there was a heaviness, probably, during that situation that carried on, and it wasn’t because of the film.” On her film, First They Killed My Father First They Killed My Father is based on author Lung Ung’s account of the Khmer Rouge 1975-79 regime in Cambodia. The film is not only the Cambodian submission for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar but is also a strong contender for it. Jolie said, “That means so much to me. For me to be allowed to be a part of another country, and then for that country to accept me as their own and be able to represent them, is the greatest honor.” First They Killed My Father released worldwide on Netflix on 15 September, 2017.