Tag Archives: brad pitt

“I had the flu. I had to be quarantined from the children for two days. I was in the attic of a house in France. I was isolated, pacing. I don’t watch TV and I wasn’t reading anything. So I started writing. I went from the beginning to the end. I didn’t know any other way. [Brad read it and] said, ‘You know, honey, it’s not that bad.’ … It was something I didn’t trust out of my hands, so by default I ended up putting myself in as director. I’ve never felt more exposed. My whole career, I’ve hidden behind other people’s words. Now it’s me talking. You feel ridiculous when you get something wrong.”

—Angelina Jolie talks to Vanity Fair about penning the script for “In the Land of Blood and Honey” and deciding to direct the film herself. Fascinating story. But to me this is a study in how different people can hear very different things in the exact same words. Angelina obviously took Brad Pitt‘s reaction to her script to be encouraging. But if my significant other said to me that something I wrote was “not that bad,” I would take it to be his way of telling me it kind of sucks and needs a lot of work. Perhaps it’s time for one of us to reframe? [Vanity Fair] Keep reading »