Angelina Jolie: 'Unbroken made me a better person'
Angelina Jolie is convinced the experience of turning late Olympian and World War Two hero Louis Zamperini's life story into a new movie, Unbroken, has made her a better person.
The Wanted star befriended prisoner-of-war Zamperini before his death earlier this year (14), and she admits meeting him and learning about his harrowing survival story made her make changes in her own life.
She tells The Hollywood Reporter, "I learned to be a better person.
I learned to be more open to my fellow man, to understanding, to
seeing the other side. I learned that when you have hate and anger
and you let it eat you up, it's only hurting you - it doesn't hurt
your enemy.
"And I learned that when we look at the news today and we see all
the things going on in the world and we feel like all is lost that
in fact there is great strength. A strong heart and indomitable
will and unbreakable spirit that exists in each one of us. It made
me face every day and every challenge differently.
"It's going to make me raise my children differently. Because that
fire we see in our children is a great thing, and I certainly was
one of those people that thought this fire inside was maybe a bad
thing. There is beauty to unrest and fight; we have to teach our
children to channel it the right way.
"When Louis had an obstacle, no matter what it was, he thought,
'Fantastic. I'm not going to be broken'. And broken is not about
losing the war; broken is not about failing. Broken is about losing
heart and losing sense of who you are and letting life take you off
track or make you dark."
Jolie's biopic, Unbroken, hit the big screen on Christmas Day
(25Dec14).