Source : PERTHNOW NEWS
Angelina Jolie has revealed her friendship with Salma Hayek Pinault has given her a connection unlike any she has experienced before as their deeply personal film Without Blood finally reaches cinemas.
The actress and director, 51, helmed and co-wrote the adaptation of Alessandro Baricco’s novella, which stars Salma, 60, alongside Demián Bichir and opened in US cinemas on 18 September.
The drama, which first premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2024, follows two people confronting the consequences of violence decades after an unnamed war.
Angelina and Salma previously appeared together in Marvel’s Eternals in 2021.
Speaking to People about working with Angelina again, Salma said: “(Our conversations on set were) delicious (and) very organic.”
She added: “I love her mind and I get her. So I think when you know somebody gets you, you feel safe and you can be whoever you are in whatever circumstances.”
Angelina said: “I think it’s so nice we met at this later stage in our life.
“Because we’ve been through so many similar things, experienced different things, and somehow have landed as older women in a very similar place.”
Salma joked: “Even though I’m much older than her, by the way.”
Angelina responded: “Not that much older!”
The Oscar-winning actress added: “To appreciate that friendship and that bond and that understanding – I haven’t had that kind of a connection in my life.”
Salma agreed: “It’s hard to find that connection. And I think that’s what part of the movie is also about, how difficult it is to communicate, to connect.”
In Without Blood, Salma plays Nina, who encounters Demián’s Tito decades after an act of violence during an unspecified conflict.
The film was shot in Italy and explores war, memory, trauma and the possibility of healing.
Angelina wrote the screenplay with Alessandro, and also produced the film.
Salma said their conversations while making the film could become highly emotional.
She added: “Sometimes we would start passionately screaming at each other. Then I start crying and she hugs me, then we’re laughing non-stop. And from the outside, I could see people say, ‘What’s going on?’”
Salma added: “I can say whatever. She’s never offended because it’s coming from me. And we’re talking about issues, and then we start crying because we’re moved, not because we made each other cry… and then we say something stupid and we start cracking up.”
The film is Angelina’s latest project as a director after In the Land of Blood and Honey, Unbroken, By the Sea and First They Killed My Father.
She has said Without Blood began during a difficult period in her own life and that adapting Alessandro’s book initially became a form of private healing.
Her directing career has run alongside the acting work that made her one of Hollywood’s most recognisable stars, including her Oscar-winning performance in Girl, Interrupted, the Lara Croft: Tomb Raider films, Mr. and Mrs. Smith and Disney’s Maleficent.
Angelina’s recent screen work also includes Couture, directed by Alice Winocour, in which she plays American filmmaker Maxine alongside Louis Garrel, Anyier Anei and Ella Rumpf.
The drama is set against Paris Fashion Week and follows three women whose lives intersect in the fashion world.
Salma remains closely associated with films including Desperado, From Dusk Till Dawn and Frida, the 2002 biographical drama about artist Frida Kahlo that earned her an Academy Award nomination for best actress.
The pair first worked together in Marvel’s Eternals, directed by Chloé Zhao, with Angelina playing warrior Thena and Salma appearing as the group’s leader Ajak.
