Angelina Jolie and Salma Hayek

Host: Thank you so much for the film. You know, it's a, it's a serious film about a very serious subject, but what I really appreciated was how it gives the time to deal with the long-term impact of war.

And I wanted to ask you first, Angelina, about, adapting the book, with the novelist and what choices you were making about where you wanted to keep the focus as you turned it into a film. Angelina Jolie: He said to me, when I first, met with Barikko, he said, "They're going to force you to change the end. They're gonna force you to pick a country.

They're gonna force you to decide what year it is. Try to hold." And because it's intended, this is what it's intended to be, you know? But sometimes these things don't.

We don't get to leave them because there's a, there's a, you know, there's an impulse or a feeling that you have to finish something or explain something. So now I think back, I feel like he was almost challenging me instead of warning me. So I think it was that, it was the commitment to the, it's, that it's universal.

I think the book is so strong, but really it rested so much on what could be alive at that table. I shots, we shot so much 'cause I didn't know how much, until they gave their extraordinary performances, I didn't know how much I was gonna be able to stay and how much I was gonna have to reenact.

And because they were so strong, I was able to stay and be pulled into, so really we were, I was in some way prepared for, to adapt in different ways. But then, but then it was them. Host: Yes. And at what point did you choose your cast for the film?

At what point did you decide that, Salma and Demián were the ones that needed to be in these two roles? I Angelina Jolie: mean, I thought of Salma early, and I called her, and she said no. Host: What? Salma. You Angelina Jolie: didn't know I was gonna say that, did you?

I was gonna admit it. Salma Hayek: I know that you're saying it. I first I didn't know she was gonna direct it.

Microphone. I got confused in Oh, see this, ah. She The beginning, she sent me the script. I was looking for material, and I always get confused.

She sent the script, and I said something. I said that, "It's super interesting, but it's completely director dependent, so I don't know." Host: And she is the director.

Salma Hayek: I didn't know, yeah. And then she comes back to me, and she we're talking, and it comes out that it's her directing. And she said, "Well, if you really don't wanna do it," which I don't understand why.

"Who should I cast?" And I go, "But what do you mean? You're directing it. I thought you were just producing it."

And "No, this is my next." Now, mind you I was confused, but she always has a lot of projects, you know, in, like, so I thought it was gonna be a different one going first, you know? And she was just producing.

And all of a sudden it just went like, boom, "I'm not producing it in two months. You better get, you know, make a decision or something." And then I said, "I'm afraid to suffer so much.

I don't want to put myself through this character. I've suffered my entire life. Now life is good for a moment.

I don't want to go through a moment. I'm just gonna be in pain the entire time. I don't want to go there."

Host: But you did. What made you decide? Salma Hayek: She convinced me. I don't need to remember. I don't know, before I knew it, I was already on the set loving it.

Host: On set with these two wonderful actors and a lot of dialogue and a lot of emotional peaks and valleys between the two of them, how are, what are you saying to them on set? How are you guiding them through the dynamics of this relationship as it's evolving? Angelina Jolie: I mean, there's, there's, there's so much they probably don't realize I said to them separately, so I wouldn't tell you everything now.

Oh, okay. But it was almost like, you know, they had to come to the table with some, with one point of view strongly, and then the table had to, and the conversation had to actually, they had to convince each other through the days that would happen, and they would, and they would give space for each other, and they would listen to each other, and then they would the next day have heard the other and ask different questions.

And it kind of kept changing, and I had this privilege of being there watching them and listening to them as they would kind of lead all of us through this and let it happen and be so open. So a lot of, I was guiding a little, but I was listening a lot. Salma Hayek: I want to correct myself on something.

Yes. It's, it's not the most difficult role I played. It's the most, maybe most complex. But it was kind of easy in a way.

Now, if I really think about it seemed really hard. I was surprised how how fast, we would get there, honestly. It was, Host: it was moving very fast.

Salma Hayek: Yeah, because she was so we were, she was so good, and she was so good, and everything was so right, and the crew and And the, you know, the rest of the cast, it was just something that kind of flow. I was afraid every day because there was like a, she would ask for impossible things, and we'd, we'd look at each Angelina Jolie: Oh, you need your mic.

Salma Hayek: Eh? With, from time to time, from time to time, she would ask for unexpected, kind of impossible things, you know? Or just beautifully strange things. And sometimes we'd look at each other and say, "What?"

And to be specific, you know, there's a range of things, but and she was doing so well that she was ahead of time. It never happens. Mm. So you saw there's a lot of dialogue, right?

And she would go, "Guys, good news. It's amazing. We're doing so well, we're ahead of time." That's nice. "So I will give you what do you need, 45 minutes to learn the next five pages of monologues?"

"While I move the lights, because I think we can shoot it today." Host: That was the good news. Salma Hayek: Really, and we were so in awe of her magic and magnificent, and so grateful because she was, she's an amazing director, that we'd look at each other and we'd go, "Okay."

And then she leave, would leave us, "How the hell are we gonna. How, I don't know, but let's start trying," you know? And then it was fun, and all of a sudden we would do it, and we'd look at each other and "Oh my God, I said a line.

Did you." "Yes. Yes." You know, we were surprised of ourselves. That's Host: fantastic. That's inspiring, actually, that you can get that from your actors.

I just maybe wanna ask, one last question. Something that you alluded to in the introduction, that this is a film you kinda need to sit with, that there's a lot of substance here, a lot of kind of deep ideas, a lot of grappling with the impact of war and what it means for each one of us.

As we sit with it, as we leave the theater and we sit with this film and what you've told us in it, what kind of, I don't know, words of direction, do you have any that you would offer us in terms of how we sit with a film like this? 'Cause it could last, you could think about it days and weeks later. Angelina Jolie: I mean, I it's, it'Bless you.

Okay. I suppose I wish we would just all sit together and just keep talking, you know? I think that's the part of it, is it should just start a conversation that I don't really have an end to or an answer. I think one of the interesting things within it is this idea that now that you've seen it, you understand this idea of, well, who's a bad guy?

Who's wrong? Who's right? Who's, who's this idea that there's some absolute, and that, and how important that is and and that the power and the, how hard it is to sit at that table, right? It wasn't easy for you to join them at that table.

That is the hardest table to sit at, and the most important table to sit at, right, for us to get through this life and for us to understand each other, and so much that's happening in the world because we're unable to do that. So don't know, I just hope that there's more conversation, and and that's really it.

Just to, just to thank you for really sitting with us, 'cause I really know this isn't an easy one. In the beginning, as this opens and I see the violence and the pain, I know that's not easy. It's intentionally not easy.

And and then I thank you for staying in your seat and continuing to listen. So thank you. Host: Angelina, thank you for the film. Thank you Salma. Thank you Demián.

Please join me in thanking the team from Without Blood. No. Thanks. Salma Hayek: No, you want to? No question? Anyone. Question.

Yes, please