“Anything, anywhere that divides or limits personal expressions and freedoms [for anyone] I think is very dangerous,” Jolie shared after being asked about her fears as an artist and an American.
Angelina Jolie is sharing her thoughts on the current state of America — with caution.
While appearing at Spain’s San Sebastián Film Festival, the Oscar-winning actress was asked a broad question about her fears as an American, seemingly to find out her thoughts on the political landscape of the United States today.
“It’s a very difficult question,” the Girl, Interrupted star began, before choosing her words carefully.
“I have to say that I love my country and I don’t, at this time, recognize my country. I’ve always lived internationally. My family is international. My life, my world view, is equal [and] united. Anything, anywhere that divides or limits personal expressions and freedoms [for anyone] I think is very dangerous,” she added.
“I think these are such serious times that we have to be careful not to say things casually. So I’ll be careful in a press conference,” she said before adding, “But these are very, very heavy times.”
Though she wasn’t asked about the situation directly, the 50-year-old’s comments come after late night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel was suspended “indefinitely” by Disney’s ABC over comments he made on his show about the man accused of killing Charlie Kirk.
The move came after Kimmel’s comments drew the ire of FCC chairman Brendan Carr, and shortly after Nexstar Media, one of the largest owners of TV stations in the country, announced they would “preempt Jimmy Kimmel Live! for the foreseeable future beginning with tonight’s [17th of September] show” on all their “owned and partner television stations affiliated with the ABC Television Network.”
“Nexstar strongly objects to recent comments made by Mr. Kimmel concerning the killing of Charlie Kirk and will replace the show with other programming in its ABC-affiliated markets,” they added.
The FCC chair went on a podcast, per The Hollywood Reporter, where he said that affiliates should “push back” on ABC and tell the network, “Listen, we’re not going to run Kimmel anymore until you straighten this out because we’re running the possibility of license revocation from the FCC if we continue to run content that ends up being a pattern of news distortion.”
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Jolie is promoting her upcoming film Couture, in which she stars as Maxine, a forty-something American film director tasked with making a short piece of work for a Paris Fashion Week show. Maxine is diagnosed with breast cancer, an experience the actress herself has a connection to given her family history of cancer. Jolie’s mother, Marcheline Bertrand, died from ovarian and breast cancer in 2007 at the age of 56. Jolie’s maternal grandmother and her aunt — both named Debbie Martin — also died of cancer.
After learning she carried he BRCA 1 gene — which significantly increases the risk of developing breast and ovarian cancer — Jolie chose to have a preventative double mastectomy in 2013.
In the same press conference, she was asked to open up about the similarities between her character Maxine in the film and Jolie’s real life experiences with her and her family’s cancer journeys.
“I lost my mother and grandmother very young, so I chose to have a double mastectomy about a decade ago,” Jolie responded.
“Those were my choices. I don’t say everybody should do it that way, but it’s important to have the choice. I don’t regret it. Anybody who’s gone through something feels vulnerable and alone. There is something particular about women’s cancers because [they] affect how we feel as women,” she added.
At the time of her double mastectomy, she told The New York Times her doctors estimated she had an 87% risk of breast cancer and a 50% risk of ovarian cancer. “I decided to be proactive and to minimize the risk as much I could.”
