Angelina Jolie opens up about working with Brad Pitt and why she thought it would help their marriage

Angelina Jolie filed for divorce from Brad Pitt in 2016.
The couple had been married for two years.
Jolie spoke candidly about her relationship with Pitt while on The Hollywood Reporter's Awards Chatter podcast.
The actress said she thought working with her husband on her movie, "By the Sea," would help them communicate.

After splitting from husband Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie is reflecting on their relationship and the importance of communication.

The 42-year-old actress appeared on The Hollywood Reporter's Awards Chatter podcast and described how she believed working on "By the Sea" with her husband would help their marriage.

"We had met working together and we worked together well ... I wanted us to do some serious work together," she said. "I thought it would be a good way for us to communicate. In some ways it was, and in some ways we learned some things."


The two met while filming "Mr. & Mrs. Smith." Pitt was married to Jennifer Aniston at the time. Jolie, who has six kids with Pitt, filed for divorce in September 2016 for "irreconcilable differences" after a two-year marriage and 12-year relationship.

"But there was a heaviness probably during that situation that carried on and it wasn't because of the film," she said. "Why did I write that exact piece? Why did we feel that way when we made it? I'm not sure."

"By the Sea," a film written and directed by Jolie and starring Jolie and Pitt, was their first collaboration since their meeting. Jolie and Pitt played a struggling married couple who attempt to reconcile their relationship after befriending a younger couple while on vacation.

"I've had many, many extraordinary very fortunate things happen and it's also been many things over the years that had been challenging, so that wasn't a particular time when I wrote it," the actress and director said. "A piece of art can be something that's healing or something that's difficult. I don't know. I'm glad we did that film, because we did explore something together. Whatever it was maybe it didn't solve certain things, but we did communicate something that needed to be communicated to each other."

Earlier this year, Jolie said she was focusing on herself after struggling with being single.

"I don't enjoy being single. It's not something I wanted," she told the Sunday Telegraph in September. "There's nothing nice about it. It's just hard ... I think now I need to rediscover a little bit of the old me."