Angelina Jolie thinks making a movie in Cambodia helped her oldest son "grow and evolve" in a way she couldn’t help him with.
The actress-turned-director enlisted 16-year-old Maddox to serve as executive producer on ‘First They Killed My Father’ – which is based on author Lung Ung’s account of the Khmer Rouge 1975-79 regime – and she was "so proud" to see the teenager working hard in his home country, from where she adopted him as a baby.
Speaking to Psychologies magazine, Angelina – whose 13-year-old son Pax was a stills photographer on the set – said: "It was a joy. I wanted them to understand their world and be able to go out and live and make friends. Yes, we were working on something important and I wanted them to have a strong work ethic, but I was also so proud when I looked over and saw Mad and Pax working with the crew and creating something. It was a natural process and I think it helped Mad to grow and evolve in a way that I couldn’t do for him. His country had to teach him. He was very involved in the production and Pax worked as a set photographer."
The 42-year-old star – who also raises Zahara, 12, Shiloh, 11, and nine-year-old twins Knox and Vivienne with estranged husband Brad Pitt – had known for many years that she wanted to make the book into a movie with her son’s involvement, and was very "impressed" with the work he put into the project.
She said: "He earned that [executive producer] credit. We’d had the script for a few years and Mad has known of Loung’s story his whole life. I told him, ‘One day, son, you’ll be ready and you’ll tell me when it’s time to go deeply into your country. Bt I need your help. You have to do it with me.’
"And because the story is from a child’s point of view, it was good to have somebody younger like Mad there to say, ‘You’re losing my attention’. He really impressed me."
Angelina Jolie says Cambodian movie has been positive for her son
