Angelina Jolie has said she waited until her adopted son was ready for them to make a film about his home country, Cambodia, together.
The Hollywood star’s 16-year-old son Maddox Jolie-Pitt was an executive producer on First They Killed My Father, which Jolie directed.
The film is adapted from Loung Ung’s memoir and centres on her childhood under the brutal Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia.
Jolie told Radio Times magazine: “I met Maddox in Cambodia when he was three months old and I’ve always wanted him to tell a story from his country.
“I told him, ‘Son, one day you’ll be ready. You will tell me when it’s time to go deeply into your country. But I need your help. You’ll have to work and you’ll have to be there every day with me.’
“And one day he said, ‘I’m ready’.”
Mother-of-six Jolie said Maddox has known Ung all his life.
“He went deep into the research and into the edit. He was great,” she said.
“And also, because the movie is from a child’s point of view, it was really helpful to have him there to say, ‘You are losing my attention in this scene’.”
Jolie adopted Maddox from Cambodia in 2002.
:: This week’s Radio Times is out on Tuesday.
