Angelina Jolie has said “I don’t recognise my country” amid the threats to free speech in the US, saying “anything anywhere that divides or limits personal expressions and freedoms from anyone, I think, is very dangerous”.
At Spain’s San Sebastián film festival on Sunday, the Oscar winning actor was asked by a journalist: “What do you fear as an artist and an American?”
“It is a very difficult question,” Jolie replied. “I love my country, but at this time, I don’t recognise my country. I’ve always lived internationally, my family is international, my friends, my life.
“My worldview is equal, united and international. Anything anywhere that divides or limits personal expressions and freedoms from anyone, I think, is very dangerous.”
She added: “These are such serious times that we have to be careful not to say things casually. These are very, very heavy times we are living in together.”
While Jolie didn’t name the late night host, her comments fell days after Jimmy Kimmel Live! was suspended “indefinitely” by ABC, which is owned by Disney. Kimmel was suspended after Brendan Carr, the chair of the Federal Communications Commission, criticised comments made by the late-night host about the aftermath of Charlie Kirk’s fatal shooting, including: “The MAGA gang [is] desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them.”
Jolie, 50, was in San Sebastian to promote "Couture", directed by French filmmaker Alice Winocour, which is competing for the festival's top prize, the Golden Shell.
She plays Maxine Walker, an American film director facing divorce and a serious illness while navigating Paris Fashion Week and embarking on a romance with a colleague, played by French actor Louis Garrel.
The Oscar-winning actress -- honoured in 1999 for her role in "Girl, Interrupted" -- said she related personally to the struggles of her latest character.
Jolie underwent a double mastectomy in 2013 and later had her ovaries and fallopian tubes removed to reduce her high genetic risk of cancer, which claimed the lives of her mother and grandmother.
Visibly moved, she said she thought often of her mother while making the film.
"I wish she was able to speak more as openly as I have been, and have people respond as graciously as you have, and not feel as alone," Jolie said.
"There's something very particular to women's cancers, because obviously it affects us, you know, how we feel as women," she added.
Source: Agencies
Bd-pratidin English/ ANI
