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Angelina Jolie on Directing Brad Pitt in By the Sea: “A Therapist Would Have a Field Day”

The Hollywood Reporter Angelina Jolie cover
Angelina Jolie joked to The Hollywood Reporter that a "therapist would have a field day" analyzing her career choices, which include directing husband Brad Pitt in a movie about an unhappily married couple

Some honeymoon period. Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt spent the weeks immediately following their wedding playing an unhappily married couple for their new film, By the Sea. And the irony is not lost on Jolie, who wrote, directed, and stars in the romantic drama. Interviewed by The Hollywood Reporter recently for its Jan. 9 issue, the Unbroken director joked that her career is a psychological minefield of odd choices.

Related: PHOTOS: Angelina Jolie's Us Weekly covers

"Yes, we spent our honeymoon playing two people in a terrible marriage," Jolie told THR of directing Pitt in the movie, their first together since 2005's Mr. & Mrs. Smith, where they met. "I'm sure a therapist would have a field day analyzing the films I choose to do. But it's been 10 years since Brad and I have worked together. It felt like it was time."

Related: PHOTOS: Brad and Angelina through the years

The Maleficent actress, 39, spoke with the magazine in honor of its 2014 Rule Breakers feature, which also spotlights some of the year's most successful stars, including Chris Pratt, Taylor Swift, and Michael Keaton. And indeed, Jolie is not like other Tinseltown A-listers. According to her THR interview, she doesn't have a publicist, a manager, or an agent.

Related: PHOTOS: Angelina's style transformation

"I never had a plan for my life. I do what I want to do," she explained of her approach to work. "And if suddenly tomorrow I couldn't do anything, I could deal with that. I'd be happy at home being a mom." 

(Jolie and Pitt have six kids together: Maddox, 13, Pax, 11, Zahara, 9, Shiloh, 8, and twins Knox and Vivienne, 6.)

Related: PHOTOS: Brad's sexiest movie looks

In fact, Jolie has never been that keen on acting anyway. "I don't want to be in hair and makeup, I don't want to be in wardrobe, I don't want to have to stand on a mark or emote," she told THR. "It makes me feel like a caged tiger."

For more from Angelina Jolie, check out The Hollywood Reporter's Rule Breakers issue.

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