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Topics: Angelina Jolie, Celebrity, Parenting, US News, Mental Health
Poppy Bilderbeck
Topics: Angelina Jolie, Celebrity, Parenting, US News, Mental Health
Angelina Jolie has opened up about what it was like working alongside her teenage daughter Vivienne on a broadway musical.
Hopping over from the land of TV and film to stage, Angelina Jolie revealed last year she would be joining the crew of Broadway musical The Outsiders and she's since revealed her involvement is all because of 15-year-old daughter Vivienne - opening up about their relationship and what it was like to have her daughter working as an assistant on the project.
In an interview with Deadline, Jolie explained Vivienne 'loves theater' and had been to see The Outsiders at La Jolla 'about five times'.
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Jolie said: "She appreciates all theater but she certainly knows what she feels close to and what she responds to."
Jolie had already read the book and seen the film, but Vivienne kept telling her mom all about the musical and eventually convinced her to 'come see it with her'.
And the musical really helped Jolie see through the eyes of her teenage daughter.
The Maleficent actor noted how director Danya Taymor has spoken about 'how important it is to teenagers, how it was written by somebody who’s the age of [Vivienne]'.
She continued: "So, really, as a mother, as a person, I was watching it, but I was really watching the effect it was having on my young daughter and what she was telling me about herself, and I was learning what about it was important to her and why it connected so deeply to her.
"So, it was a very different experience of understanding, of how this is having a significant effect on her as a young person right now, and she’s communicating something to me, and that is the power of this material, which was in really good shape even by then. And then I had the privilege of watching everyone work over this last year to make it into what it is, and Vivienne has been there the whole way."
When asked what about the musical particularly resonated with Vivienne, Jolie noted it's 'hard to speak for her' because the teen is a 'complex young woman'.
She explained she thinks the musical is just 'very deep' and 'honest' and 'doesn't shy away from real feelings and real discussion and real pain'.
While Jolie notes she believes every person who watches it 'might identify slightly more with one character or another' what she feels you 'see through it all there is pain in life'.
Themes and questions such as fear, identity, why people are marginalized and 'harmed more than others,' suicide and what we're all 'facing' in life.
Jolie resolves: "I think a lot of young people, especially today, these are very difficult times, and they want to have that real discussion, and they want to know what helps you get through life. What’s the reality of it?
"Like, don’t sugarcoat things for teenagers, is what I learned from S. E. Hinton. Meet them where they’re at, and it’s heavy, and it’s real, and these are the biggest, most complex times as you form into a person and realize certain hard truths about life, and what gets you through."