Maleficent, the untold story of Disney's most iconic villain from the 1959 classic Sleeping Beauty. Courtesy: Disney
THERE was a time — long before Brad Pitt — when Angelina Jolie raised a cynical eyebrow at the foolish fairytale notion of "love's true kiss".
"Absolutely!" she almost roars. "I laughed at that a lot growing up. I still find it funny."
Which goes some way to explaining why, when Jolie watched Disney's Sleeping Beauty as a child, it was not the princess that stuck with her, but the evil fairy that cursed the child: Maleficent.
Now, as a grown woman with kids of her own, Jolie is enormously pleased to be telling Maleficent's side of the story — what was it that pushed this cartoon villain so far that she would show up at a baby princess's christening and curse her to prick her finger and die on her 16th birthday?
From the outside, it may look like just another blockbuster movie, but from Jolie's perspective, playing the titular role in Maleficent was the holy grail every female actor is hunting for: the ultimate complicated woman.
Some have even interpreted the film to be a feminist manifesto, an idea that makes Jolie throw her head back with laughter.
"We can't scare the men!" she whispers, conspiratorially.
If the film does have a moral, she says, it's about finding a way to break down the walls we put up after facing the tough things in life.
"Maleficent decides she can't trust and she puts her wall up and gets angry and goes to the extreme — we all kind of know what that is. So, what are the things in life that help us to open up again?"
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Favours a villain ... Angelina Jolie always wanted to be Maleficent rather than the princess, Sleeping Beauty. Source: Supplied
The problem is, Maleficent takes extreme to the extreme. A great, complex character to play, sure. But would anyone like her?
"We really didn't know if we were going to pull it off, even while we were doing it," Jolie admits. "I remember Linda (Woolverton, who wrote the movie) saying to me, 'If the centre of this is that she curses a baby, how could you ever have a film where people connect to her? When she walks into the christening, are you on her side? Could that ever be possible?' "
South African actor Sharlto Copley plays King Stefan, the man whose unforgivable act sets Maleficent on to the path of vengeance. Copley has played a few unlovable characters in his time and reckons if anyone was going to pull off that impossible task, it was Jolie.
"For Angie in this role, where she will go and say 'I hate you' to a baby, it's like, very few movie stars that are loved by millions will do that. The fans won't let them!" he says.
"Even if they have the acting chops to do it, it's going to be tough. She's one of the few that is in a position to do a role like this and really own it the way she did."
Sneak peek .. Sharlto Copley, who plays King Stefan, says that if anyone could pull off the character of Maleficent, it was Angelina Jolie. Source: Supplied
Helping Jolie own it is that magnificent Maleficent costume — the horns, the glowing eyes, the raised cheekbones, the long black cloak, the high collar and the staff.
When her son Pax saw her like that, he ran away. The star herself says it made "the little girl in me" come rushing back.
"It was play time! It's the thing that we forget as actors: we take ourselves so seriously. It's entertainment, it's fantasy, it's fun. It was the little girl in me stepping into this character that I'd always been very curious about.
"When I saw my shadow (as Maleficent), it was as if it was the little girl looking at the shadow on the wall and thinking, 'Wow, we've grown up! And they're letting us play her. How fun!'."
Indeed, it seems as if there's an unwritten rule that once you're a serious actor, fairytales and fantasies are things …
On set ... Angelina Jolie as Maleficent, left, in a scene with her daughter Vivienne Jolie-Pitt, portraying Young Aurora. Source: AP
"…you don't do," says Jolie, finishing the thought. "Fortunately, I've never listened to that. I do all different types of things. I've always gone back and forth with action movies because I love them and I have fun with them. Then I've done serious movies … I've tried very hard to always do a bit of everything so I'm always allowed to do a bit of everything.
"But, honestly, I never thought I would be able to do a Disney movie. I certainly didn't think I would do something that was so comedic, because I don't think of myself as being able to be funny."
Angelina Jolie: the woman who has it all, except for the funny gene? Maybe not. She reckons her kids have loosened her up a bit.
"This film really came out of 10-12 years of raising kids and making them laugh and finding a different way of being an artist — it's not just about what you want to express and connecting deeply to the audience. It is also this lighter, more wonderful thing about the magic of it all."
The Jolie-Pitt kids not only helped their mother find her funny bone — they helped her make the movie. Her equal-youngest, Vivienne, plays the young Princess Aurora, while Pax and Zahara cameo briefly as guests at the christening.
In Australia ... Angelina Jolie on set in Pitt St, Sydney, filming her movie, Unbroken. Picture: Bradley Hunter Source: News Limited
Yet Jolie and Pitt are adamant they don't want their kids (the brood also includes Maddox, Shiloh and Knox) to go into acting.
Funnily enough, Jolie may also be on the way out. She says it's going to take a lot to get her in front of a camera from here on in.
"But, fortunately, I'll find those few special things and I think I'll enjoy it more now because I will do only the ones that I love — and not as career choices but just as experiences in life."
Her new passion is being a director and promotion for Maleficent has taken her away from editing her second movie, Unbroken.
In love ... Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie at the Maleficent exhibit in London, loved their time together in Sydney. Picture: Joel Ryan Source: AP
"This is the stage where you start to get insecure and worried that you didn't do everything," she laughs.
The true story of US war hero and Olympic athlete, Louis Zamperini, who survived a plane crash, 47 days on a liferaft in the middle of the ocean and a Japanese internment camp, this is no small vanity project — a Boxing Day release date is testament to its blockbuster potential.
Jolie may be insecure, but she's also quietly confident that she's done justice to her subject.
"It's just a matter of sculpting it. Because Louis has such a big life.
"You could almost make a film about any one chapter of his life — the raft alone could have been a film. So it's hard to have to fit it all into the movie."
Sultry and sexy ... actress Angelina Jolie. Source: Supplied
Unbroken was shot over several months in NSW and Queensland, wrapping earlier this year.
"I loved working there," says Jolie of her time in Australia. "The children learnt how to surf and skate. We loved the zoo (Taronga) — I slept in the zoo three times by the time we left, with your crazy birds.
"The first morning I woke up in the zoo, about 5 o'clock, I thought Brad was outside playing a trick on me with a whistle. It was your crazy birds! I didn't actually think it was possible to make that sound that early in the morning."
MALEFICENT OPENS MAY 29
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