Angelina Jolie shares how much her kids love her in Eternals

It’s difficult to believe, but yes, Angelina Jolie has flaws.

During our roundtable conversation with the superstar-slash-supermom-slash super human, it was hard to imagine where she was driving at, given her heroic gestures in life and family. But yes, as she embarked as Thena, the warrior goddess in Marvel Studios’ Eternals, she had to give so much of her personal self to the role.

“There’s a really interesting challenge in this type of film to be so open and vulnerable, and in any kind of film to be so broken,” she said. “Also, very cathartic as an actress, how many people see that, especially those who suffer and can be broken are also strong people because they are wrestling with something.”

Wow! Pretty gaping of her to share, especially as her life is also very public for the fans to consume and assume which part of it she was referring to… which she did not. But Angie did go on to say how much the six of her children love her character and how it mirrors her as a mother.

“My kids did like this film and the character is the most like me and I think that’s because they’ve seen me at my worst, they’ve seen me broken. They’ve seen me in pain and that is because they also know that I fight really hard for those I love and I can be pretty tough but they saw that she’s quite human and open,” Angie shared.

That actually led her to impart with us an iconic line she created with director Chloe Zhao, which is “When you love something, you fight for it,” and that is how Angie is wired as a human being, “I told my children that there is a special line just for you in the film and they know it’s that one… it is not possible for me not to fight for someone and it doesn’t even have to be someone I love and care about when I see an injustice. And I think there is something I can do or I see somebody being harmful to somebody else, I don’t feel like I can walk away from it as a person.”

Her character in Eternals has PTSD or a moral injury to live with, and besides the physical aspect where Angelina had to study ballet to execute her demanding action scenes, the emotional aspect was something else.

“She’s challenging because she holds these two parts,” Angie said. “She is really struggling with her mental health. She is struggling with feeling very broken and overwhelmed, but where she is clear with is what she fights for. She’s just trying very hard to be strong for who she loves.”

With all these, just like her very diverse family which she takes pride in, Angie wanted to be part of Eternals hoping that more children around the world would see themselves as superheroes and that people may embrace each culture naturally as it is around us now on the daily basis.

“This stage of Marvel will be the most diverse and inclusive with the representation of this new family and I was so excited that they were doing that. I just wanted to support it and be part of it in any way that I could,” she said. “Obviously, in my family with diversity, I see it firsthand every day and the strength that comes from it and the deeper understanding that comes from each other. I was really drawn to that reason.”

Eternals will be shown in Philippine theaters on Dec. 1.