NEW YORK ā Taylor Sheridan, initially brought on to rewrite the mountain thriller āThose Who Wish Me Dead,ā gradually got more invested in the movie. When another filmmaker dropped out, he called the studio with an offer.
āI said if I can get Angie to do this with me, Iāll direct it for you,ā Sheridan says. āThey said, āGreat. Youāll never get Angie.āā
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The skepticism on the part of Warner Bros. executives was warranted. Angelina Jolie, whose priorities have centered on filmmaking, international work and family, hasnāt starred in a live-action film in six years. Over the last decade, her only leading performances have been two āMaleficentā movies and āBy the Sea,ā which she directed and starred in alongside then-husband Brad Pitt.
But Sheridanās timing was right. Jolie, going through a painful and protracted divorce, was more interested in a quicker, simpler role on set. And the part of a Montanan smoke jumper haunted by trauma and guilt, was potentially cathartic.
āWe all have times in our lives where we are broken. And we grieve and weāre not sure we have anything left in us,ā Jolie said in an interview by Zoom from Los Angeles. āI identified more with a part of her that didnāt feel she could do a lot, and hadnāt done this in a long time. To be in this situation and have a director that is both sensitive and aware of the human experience, to go there and to feel it, but also to push you to find your strength and move forward.ā
āIt was really what I needed at that time,ā says Jolie.
āThose Who Wish Me Dead,ā which will on May 14 open in theaters and on HBO Max, is an anomaly for other reasons, too. Itās a star-led genre film not based on well-known intellectual property made by a major studio. (The film is based on Michael Korytaās 2014 book.) Like Sheridanās previous films āāTo Hell or High Water,ā āSicarioā (both of which he wrote) and āWind Riverā (which Sheridan wrote and directed), itās a tale of blood and justice across a vast and violent American landscape.
āTo sound like a millennial, itās very on-brand for me,ā says Sheridan, chuckling. āBut whatās unique is we made this at a studio. This is a studio film and they trusted us to go do this. We made it like a ā70s movie. They promoted it like a ā70s movie. The biggest 21st century element is the fact that youāll be able to stream it or go to the theater.ā
In āThose Who Wish Me Dead,ā Jolieās Hannah Faber encounters a 12-year-old boy (Finn Little) in the wilderness whoās fleeing two assassins. It was shot in New Mexico in May and June 2019 ā a month after Jolie and Pitt were ruled legally single by a court. (A custody battle over their six children is ongoing.)
Snow was still falling in the mountains. Aside from the natural environs, Sheridan erected a faux forest and set it aflame. Jolie, an action star in āMr. & Mrs. Smith,ā āSaltā and āLara Croft: Tomb Raider,ā performed many of her stunts. Sheridan, accustomed to making films close to the land, had little luxury to offer beyond space heaters in tents and lavish, overbudget craft services. He cheerfully recalls the experience as miserable.
āYou know, the character sort of drags Angie through emotional hell, and then I drug her through physical hell,ā Sheridan says from a remote lakeside quarantine in Ontario. āThatās how we made the movie.ā
āAnd I loved every minute of it,ā Jolie says, smiling.
Jolie will next be seen in Marvel's āEternals,ā by āNomadlandā director ChloĆ© Zhao ā another filmmaker drawn to fresh tales on old American frontiers. It's been an unexpected break from directing for Jolie, who last helmed 2017's Cambodian genocide drama āFirst They Killed My Father."
āI prefer directing but acting gives me more time at home,ā says Jolie. āIt's less of a commitment."
Yet, if anything, the chances of such performances are getting slimmer. The pandemic, says the 45-year-old Jolie, has been a time of reevaluation ā and movies are a diminishing priority.
āI was kind of spending more time at home regardless because of different family reasons. But if I was before spending half my time on my international work, I think Iāll now be spending 80% of my time on this other work. Iāll be doing less film work. Not quitting anything but a lot less,ā says Jolie. āIāve mentally shifting into a different time in my life.ā
Jolie has been a special envoy to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees since 2012. She applauds President Joe Bidenās recent expansion of U.S. refugee admissions but sees a global crisis only worsening, especially as countries struggling from the pandemic pull back on foreign aid.
āIn the last decade, we saw numbers double. Weāre looking at 80 million displaced people. A lot of those people are displaced because of the climate and the way thatās changing, and thatās going to keep changing,ā says Jolie. āIf we donāt take it seriously, weāre going to see a complete breakdown of some many things for so many people. Or this can be the turning point where we all pull together.ā
In juggling global inequity and personal turmoil, it's easy to see how the straightforward, physical demands of āThose Who Wish Me Deadā would appeal to Jolie.
āI like characters whose physical journey parallels the emotional journey theyāre going through," says Sheridan. "She was game. It was cold. Iād be like, āGet in the riverā and sheād be like, āOK, Iām getting in the river.āā
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Follow AP Film Writer Jake Coyle on Twitter at http://twitter.com/jakecoyleAP