Angelina Jolie cries remembering Zamperini

AAP

18 Nov, 2014 12:15 AM4 mins to read

Angelina Jolie walks the red carpet at the Unbroken world premiere in Sydney, Australia. Photo / Getty Images

Angelina Jolie's hands are shaking.

Tears well up in her eyes.

Vulnerable and bleeding emotional pain, it's not the powerful Academy Award-winning actress, human rights crusader and mother of six that we are used to seeing.

"No, no, no," Jolie, wiping away tears, tells AAP when asked if she wants to stop the interview.

"It's hard."

Jolie is sitting in a theatre in the Henry Mancini building on the Universal Pictures lot in Los Angeles and recalling the moment she rushed to the hospital where 97-year-old Louis Zamperini, an American Olympic distance runner and World War II prisoner of war survivor, was being cared for.

"I was able to bring the film to the hospital," Jolie said. "I held it on my laptop over his bed and we talked about it.

"It was great. It was beautiful. He was like a father and grandfather to me."

The film is Unbroken, Jolie's latest directorial effort, and just days after the hospital screening on the laptop of her rough cut, Zamperini passed away.

Watch the trailer here

"I'm so happy he's at peace," Jolie said.

"It's hard to argue anyone else had a fuller life with more purpose."

Shot in Australia, Unbroken follows Zamperini's incredible and inspiring story.

After finishing eighth in the 5000m race in front of Adolf Hitler at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, Zamperini enlisted in the US Army's Air Forces.

In 1943 his B-24 Liberator bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean, he was one of just three survivors of the 11-man crew, they drifted for 47 days and survived on fish, albatross and rainwater before being captured by Japanese forces.

He remained a prisoner of war, enduring torture and beatings, until the war ended in 1945.

Jolie's interest in directing his story came after reading the 2010 book about Zamperini's life written by Laura Hillenbrand.

"After I read the book I said, 'I have to meet this man. I really want to fight to get this job'," Jolie said.

"They said, 'He knows where you live because he can see down into your house'."

Unbeknown to Jolie, husband Brad Pitt and her children, they were Zamperini's neighbours in Los Angeles.

Louis Zamperini. Photo / Getty Images

While the war hero was ecstatic to have Jolie keen to direct a film about his life, Jolie had to convince Universal Pictures executives Unbroken, with it's large scale, could be made without a bloated budget.

"Louis had been waiting 57 years for the movie to be made so while I got the job, I still had to get it green lit," she said.

"It is not an easy movie to do, we didn't have a star, I'm a relatively new director, there's these big action sequences and we had to figure out how to do it without much money."

Jolie came up with a fun plan to announce to Zamperini she was successful in getting Universal to give her the green light.

She told Zamperini to keep an eye on her home's flagpole.

"It took a while, so I told Louis when we get it green lit I'll fly the USA flag," Jolie laughed.

"So when we got the green light I rang Brad and said, 'Get the flag up. Get the flag up'.

"So he did and then I rang Louis and he said, 'Is that for me?'

"I said, 'Yes, that's for you. We are finally making it'."

Gallery: Unbroken red carpet