Angelina Jolie was joined by her family on the red carpet for the premier of the much anticipated Maleficent. T
he event subsequently made for rare and beautiful family portraits; young Vivienne who has a role alongside mommy in the film was the only one not in attendance.
Although Brad and Angelina do not intend for their children to become young actors, they do find having them on set to be a fun family activity. Vivienne got a bigger role as young Sleeping Beauty in this one because with the beautiful Angelina all done up for her dark Evil Witch role, it was too difficult to find other children to get near her. The award-winning actress explained, “It had to be a child that liked me and wasn’t afraid of my horns and my eyes and my claws. So it had to be Viv.”
The dark fantasy film is a re-imagining of Disney’s Sleeping Beauty (originally based on a Grimm’s fairytale), from the perspective of the antagonist. Producer Joe Roth has stated that Angelina was the only one for the role. “She seemed like the only person who could play the part. There was no point in making the movie if it wasn’t her.”
The Jolie-Pitt clan accompanied Angelina on-set; Vivienne needed all the encouragement she could get for her debut role. Angelina told ABC that for her first day she was instructed to catch a butterfly, “and she just really didn’t feel like doing it… I actually was holding the pole with the ball on the end and bouncing up and down and dancing, trying to make her laugh, and daddy was on the edge of the cliff she had to jump off, making faces and all her brothers and sisters were egging her on.” After spending some quality practice time at home, she returned to set and “hit the mark”, but it was clear that she did not want to do it a second time.
Zahara and Pax also got small walk-on roles in the blockbuster, so it’s no wonder that the red carpet turned out to be a family event. Stunning as always, Angelina stayed in character, donning an elegant Gothic-style gown. The black leather Versace number was spiced up with gold spike cuffs for accessories. But the actress admits that after removing the movie-make-up, prosthetics and contact lenses, she actually feels quite flat and boring. Meanwhile, Brad was suited all in black, perfectly suiting his wife’s dark look. The children were mostly dressed for the spotlight, but Zahara chose to go casual. She was dressed in jeans and a tee, but did sparkle her face in honour of the film’s spectacularly magical theme.
The film opens everywhere tomorrow, May 30th, as it kicks off the blockbuster season.
Photos: Charley Gallay
