Angelina Jolie breaks down paying tribute to late mother who inspired her to play latest role

Angelina Jolie broke down in tears at a London press conference yesterday as she paid tribute to her late mother.

The Oscar-winning actress grew teary-eyed as she recalled how difficult she found it to play a mother in her latest film The Changeling, which was filmed shortly after her mum Marcheline Bertrand died in January 2007.

Fighting back the tears, Angelina said: 'Her name was Marcheline, but we used to call her Marshmallow, as a joke, because she was just the softest, most gentle woman in the world.
'She was really sweet and was never angry - she couldn't swear to save her life. But when it came to her kids, she was really fierce and so this (film) is very much her, her story.

'She was the woman I related to, who had that elegance and strength for knowing what was right.'

Angelina and her partner Brad Pitt flew in from the U.S. to the capital this week to promote her latest film.

It appeared the strain of their busy schedule and roles as parents to six children were getting to the glamorous couple, who looked visibly tired last night.
Arriving for the press conference last night, the exhausted looking film stars dressed down for the occasion.

They looked preoccupied as they posed for photographers, perhaps thinking about their six young children, including baby twins Vivienne and Knox who stayed behind with a nanny at Claridge's hotel.

During the conference the pressure of her work seemed to be getting to Angelina, who became tearful as she paid tribute to her mother.

Angelina was devastated when Marcheline lost her battle with ovarian cancer last year.

Six weeks later, Angelina adopted Vietnamese son Pax Thien, and went on to give birth to twins Knox and Vivienne in France in July.

In The Changeling directed by Clint Eastwood, Angelina plays a mother in 1920s Los Angeles whose son is kidnapped.

When her child is returned to her, she quickly realises that the boy is not her own.

The character highlights the corruption of the Los Angeles Police Department and challenges the police after refusing to have such injustice forced upon her.

Angelina also hinted that she may slowly move away from acting and continue expanding her family.

She said: 'I have a big family and a lot of responsibility at home, and I have the good fortune financially not to have to work all the time, and I just feel privileged that I get to be home a lot. Maybe eventually I'll stop (acting).'

And when asked if the public could expect her to expand her family again, she replied: 'Sure you can.'
Jolie said the role had especially appealed to her as it was an 'inspirational and true story'.

'When I first read the script I just couldn't put it down, but then I said no, I'm leaving it,' she said.

'I didn't want to get involved with the project because it was too upsetting. But then I couldn't stop talking about her (character).

'I found myself sitting with people and wanting them to know about this extraordinary woman.'

The 33-year-old also praised director Eastwood and said she had always wanted to work with him.

She added: 'He is a really good man. He is one of those very fair, strong leaders.'

WEB EXCLUSIVE - At home with the Jolie-Pitts: An intimate look inside the couple's family album

Shunning her high-glamour red carpet looks, with her unbrushed hair flowing over her shoulders, Angelina Jolie gazes into the eyes of her two-year-old daughter Shiloh.

Beside her, sucking his thumb like many four-year-olds do, is her son Pax, snuggled into his mother's side while covered in face and body paint.

This touching image is just one of several taken by doting dad Brad Pitt for an intimate portrait of the couple's family life.


Far from the frantic chaos you would imagine would be in a house of six children aged seven and under, Angelina is seen relaxed and happy as she spends time with her brood.

Brad has made his photography debut shooting his seven favourite things in the world - Angelina and their six children - for America's W magazine.

The publication commissioned Brad to do the photos - which accompanied a revealing interview by the Oscar-winning actress - at the couple's rented home in the south of France.

Taken just seven weeks after the birth of the couple's twins Knox and Vivienne, Angelina is a picture of contentment as she enthuses about the joys of parenthood.

Using no-longer-produced Kodak Tech Pan film specially flown in Tel Aviv, Brad captured the real family life of the Jolie-Pitt clan in black or white.

In one astonishingly intimate shot, Angelina gazes into the camera while breast-feeding one of the couple's twins.

With her hair flowing naturally over her shoulder, a tiny hand is seen clutching Angelina's breasts as they feed.

In another image, Angelina channels Seventies glamour as she stands in a floppy black hat and sunglasses, while clutching one of the twins in a sling.
Often portrayed as a sex symbol in her public life, Angelina shows her fun side as she larks around for the cameras in the unguarded shots.

In one photograph, Angelina sits in a white linen dresses giggling at her oldest son Maddox, seven, who is in fits of laughter over a private joke between the pair.

Another image, the Mr & Mrs Smith actress purses her famous lips into 'fish lips' as she plays up to the camera.

While Angelina appears smiling in most of the images, one of the shots seem to feature her unprepared.
Biting into a hamburger, Angelina looks like she is an unwilling subject on the camera during her mealtime.

In the accompanying interview, the 33-year-old actress admitted she had brought her son Maddox shopping for knives.

She said: 'We take him to a special shop. We also talk about samurais and the idea about defending someone as good. We talk about everything.'

She added it is something of a family tradition - her late mother, Marcheline Bertrand, had taken her shopping for a knife when she was just 11.

She added: 'I collected knives and always had certain things around. For some reason, the ritual of having cut myself and feeling the pain, maybe feeling alive, feeling some kind of release, it was somehow therapeutic to me.'

The couple, who have been dating since 2005, have three adopted children and three biological, and have recently admitted they want to adopt more.

They are parents to Cambodian Maddox, seven; Vietnamese Pax Thien, four; Ethiopian Zahara Marley, three; Shiloh Nouvel, two; and twins Knox and Vivienne, three months.

Still so in love: Brad and Angelina are the picture of happiness as they visit New Orleans housing project

The Pitt-Jolie clan were the picture of family bliss yesterday as they visited a housing project in New Orleans.

Brad and Angelina showed the world that they are still crazy about each other as they embraced and gazed at each other lovingly while two of their six children looked on.

The loved-up pair were all smiles as they played with their oldest children Maddox, 7, and Pax Thien, 4, in a playground outside the centre.
Pitt is part of a commitment to build 150 new homes in the city's Lower Ninth Ward.

The actor's Make It Right project aims to re-build the New Orleans community that was hardest hit by Hurricane Katrina.

Meanwhile Angelina recently admitted that she turned to her late mother Marcheline Bertrand for inspiration in her new movie.

The 33-year-old is tipped for an Oscar for her role as a mother desperately seeking her kidnapped son in Clint Eastwood's The Changeling.
'My mother would fight that hard for her children,' said the star.

She says the role made her think about her own children, with her baby twins taking the number to six.

She said the movie made her 'confront my worst fear. It made me feel closer to my kids and grateful every night just to know where they are and that they're healthy'.

She added: 'Making the phone call [in the film], saying that my kid was kidnapped, was difficult. I don't even like saying it right now.'

Angelina also revealed that her children produce 'the greatest chaos'.

'They're constantly loud, constantly messy,' she said.
But she admits that she and Brad are eager to add to their family 'one way or another', referring to how they have three children from adoption as well as three from Angie's own childbirth.

Angelina took half of her extensive brood out for an afternoon stroll to the shops in New Orleans last week.


Leaving three-month-old twins Vivienne and Knox at home with their seven-year-old brother Maddox, Angelina brought Pax Thien, four; Zahara Marley, three; and Shiloh Nouvel, two; to the local Verdi Mart.

Dressed in a floor-length black dress, Angelina was careful not to trip as she carried blonde-haired Shiloh, who was clutching her beloved pink blankie and wearing neon green Crocs.
With Angelina going for the feminine look in her gown, tomboys Shiloh and Zahara were dressed in coloured jeans, while big brother Pax went for the workmen-style in dungarees.

The cute quartet, closely followed by two security guards, stopped at the store to buy packets of Cheetos (a cheese-flavoured cornmeal snack) for the kids and some bottled water.
Earlier that day, proud father Brad was spotted cycling around the city on his way to a business lunch at Creole restaurant Antoine's.

Wearing a fedora hat instead of a cycling helmet, the handsome star was clutching a notebook with a picture of U.S. Presidential candidate Barack Obama on it.

The superstar couple bought a £1.75million, six-bedroom 1830s house in New Orleans' historic French Quarter in early 2007 in a bid to help regenerate the area.
They returned to New Orleans on Monday for the first time since the spring after spending the weekend in New York.

The couple spent most of the year in Europe - renting the £35million Miraval Estate villa in the French hamlet of Correns, in the Provence region - before moving to Germany last month, where Brad is expected to remain for most of the year making his latest film.

Brad Pitt's gay support

Brad Pitt has donated a staggering $100,000 to support gay couples' right to marry.

The 'Burn After Reading' actor - who previously revealed he would not marry partner Angelina Jolie until everyone in America is "legally able" to marry whoever they want - gave the money to help fight Californian ballot Proposition 8, which aims to take away the homosexual community's right to wed.

In a statement, Brad said: "Because no one has the right to deny another their life, even though they disagree with it, because everyone has the right to live the life they so desire if it doesn't harm another and because discrimination has no place in America, my vote will be for equality and against Proposition 8."

Brad's donation is the largest given to the anti-Proposition 8 campaign by an A-list celebrity so far.

Political strategist Chad Griffin added: "It is our hope that others in the entertainment industry will step up and match Brad Pitt's heroic commitment to quality and defeating Proposition 8."

The 44-year-old actor's decision to donate the money comes just a week after Brad and Angelina - who has previously enjoyed lesbian relationships - were ranked in sixth position on Parade magazine's list of the most generous celebrities in the world, after giving away $8.4 million of their own money to charitable causes in 2007.