Angelina Jolie found working on her new movie "very healing".
Angelina Jolie
The 45-year-old star - who has Maddox, 18, Pax, 17, Zahara, 16, Shiloh, 14, and 12-year-old twins Knox and Vivienne with former husband Brad Pitt - has returned to action movies for the first time in over a decade with 'Those Who Wish Me Dead' but it wasn't the physical side of playing PTSD-stricken fire fighter Hannah Faber that drew her to the project, but getting the chance to depict someone getting back up after being left "broken".
She told 'Entertainment Tonight': "I am drawn to people who have been through something and are broken and then find their way forward and overcome it.
"As an artist, it's very healing to play people like that. She's been very healing for me, because you just get so broken and then you stand back up.
"[Hannah is] a very broken person who carries a great deal of guilt."
In the film, smoke jumper Hannah takes it upon herself to try and protect a 12-year-old boy (Finn Little) who witnessed a murder and Angelina insisted the story is more than just a "thriller".
She said: "On its surface, it feels like a great thriller, a great adventure across an unusual terrain inside a great fire. Underneath it, it's a really emotional film. It's about people who have a great impact on each other and change each other. Emotionally and practically, they go through the fire."
The 'By the Sea' filmmaker recently admitted she had returned to acting and taken on the role because her split from Brad meant it wasn't fair on her family for her to take on long directing projects for the time being.
She said: "I love directing, but I had a change in my family situation that's not made it possible for me to direct for a few years.
"I needed to just do shorter jobs and be home more, so I kind of went back to doing a few acting jobs. That's really the truth of it."
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