Angelina Jolie gave an exclusive interview to BBC World News ahead of the premiere of her new film in Cambodia.
The Hollywood A-lister sat down with BBC correspondent and presenter, Yalda Hakim, to talk about ‘First they killed my Father’ – a story about the genocide that killed a quarter of the population. In a wide-ranging interview recorded on Friday, the filmmaker and humanitarian talks about her relationship with Cambodia and its people, the rise of populism, and for the first time comments about the recent turmoil in her family life.
See below the transcript of the interview.
AJ: I’m not here because I’m a director who wanted to make a movie. I’m here because seventeen years ago I came to this country and I fell in love with its people and learned about its history, and in doing so realised, how little I actually knew in my early twenties about the world and so this country, for me was my awakening. And my son changed my life. Becoming a Cambodian family changed my life. …So there was never a plan to… we should make this movie. It’s just, I became a filmmaker and one day I thought, what story do I feel is really important to tell? And I felt that this war that happened 40 years ago and what happened to these people was not properly understood. And not just for the world, but for the people of this country. I felt that I wanted them to be able to reflect on it in a way that they could absorb, so it’s through the eyes of the child and it’s a lot about love.
YH: Do you think though this nation is ready for that?
AJ: I hope so. [Laughs] Yes I do. I wouldn’t have… When I first started coming here….. so much has changed. When many people spoke about this, fifteen or twenty years ago – you know, since it happened – there are many people denying the history or saying it wasn’t as bad or trying to… of course many people want to forget, or it’s just….. It’s the horrors. It’s the horrors of war and you just simply er…
YH: It’s interesting. You say this is a country which is very much part of your own personal journey. Do you think that in many ways you’ve come full circle? Your humanitarian work started here, you became a mother here, that perhaps this this is some crossroads for you, it’s come back here.
AJ: Yeah, yeah. I’ll always be very grateful to this country and I hope I have given back as much as it’s given me. I don’t think I ever could give back as much as this country has given me.
YH: You wrote a New York Times op-ed piece a few weeks ago and you spoke about having a truly international family. You said the refugee policy should be about fact , not fear. You also said we shouldn’t be departing from our values. Can you tell me what you meant by that?
AJ: It’s funny isn’t it? Some questions seem so obvious don’t they? It’s these things we all talk about and we hear them spoken about often. What are our values? I value life, equally every single individual human life. I don’t separate people by race, colour or religion. And if I do it’s because I celebrate the diversity in the world.
YH: But we are seeing this of populist leaders right around the world. Do you think it’s creating a more intolerant society?
AJ: This is an old trick and we should know better than to fall for it. And I see it, and I see it rising, and the only thing I can do is to use my voice and encourage others and raise my children to know right and wrong and to have a broad view of world and to embrace their diversity and other people’s and respect others.
And I think that all we can do now is each and every person, each one of your listeners, we all just have to be the best of ourselves. If not now more than ever, we really have to rise up and find our rational centre, our “who are we and what do we stand for?” And we know it, we know what’s right and wrong.
YH: If I take it back to your film, your film is about family and loss. I understand this is a very sensitive issue. We know that an incident occurred which led to your separation. We also know you haven’t said anything about this. But would you like to say something?
AJ: Only that…. I don’t want to say very much about that, except to say it was a very difficult time and… and we are a family and we will always be a family, and we will get through this time and hopefully be a stronger family for it.
YH: But can I ask how you’re coping?
AJ: I am… many, many people find themselves in this situation. My whole, my family…we’ve all being through a difficult time. And it’s not… My focus is my children, our children, and it is… and my focus is finding this way through and as I said we are… we are and forever will be a family and so that is my, that is how I am coping. I am coping with finding a way through to make sure that this somehow makes us stronger and closer.
YH: This film is a combination of passions; filmmaking as an art, your humanitarian work. In say, five years’ time where would you like to see yourself? Where do you think you’ll be?
AJ: Five years’ time. Do I have all teenagers?
YH: [laughs] You have all teenagers at that stage.
AJ: At that stage, I hope just standing! In five years’ time I would like to be travelling around the world visiting my children hoping that they’re just happy and doing really interesting things, and I imagine in many different parts of the world, and I’ll be supporting them. And everything I do I hope is that I represent something, and I represent the right things to my children, and give them the right sense of what they’re capable of, and the world as it should be seen. Not through the prism of Hollywood or through a certain kind of life, but really take them into the world, where they have a really good sense and become rounded people.
YH: What do you really want to do when wake up first thing in the morning?
AJ: Hmm… Get through the day! [Laughs] It’s been a difficult few months [Laughs] Right now I’m going through a moment when just everybody’s in my room. [Laughs] Two dogs, two hamsters and two children at the moment. [Laughs] It’s wonderful… But usually I just wake up trying to figure out who’s going to get dog out, who’s going to start the pancakes and did anybody brush their teeth.
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