Angelina Jolie Breaks Down in Tears at Toronto Film Festival

Angelina Jolie was brought to tears during an interview at the Toronto International Film Festival while discussing her late mother.

During an audience Q&A session at the festival’s premiere of Jolie’s new film Couture on Sunday, September 7, reported on by Entertainment Weekly, the actress, 50, provided an emotional response when asked for advice “to anyone who recently lost someone to cancer.” (Jolie portrays a character suffering from cancer in Couture, and also lost her own mother, Marcia Lynne Bertrand, to cancer in 2007.)

Jolie initially paused, a hand held at her mouth as she processed her emotions, before she offered a response. “I’m very sorry for your loss,” Jolie began as she began to dab at her eyes. “One thing I remember my mother saying when she had cancer … we’d had a dinner and people were asking her … how she was doing. She said, ‘All people ever ask me about is cancer.’”

Jolie continued to dab at the corner of her eyes before she went on, “I would say, if you know someone who’s going through something, ask them about everything else in their life as well. They’re a whole person. And they’re still living.”

The outlet noted that “the audience applauded Jolie’s candour in the moment” before the film discussion moved on.

Jolie’s public comments regarding her mother’s death at the age of 56 came after she discussed the late actress while accepting the Maltin Modern Master Award at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival in February.

She told the crowd at the time, “I think of my mother … she had to give up her dreams of a creative life but she embraced that side of mine.”

Jolie also revealed during her speech that her mom, who died after a decade-long breast and ovarian cancer battle, would write letters to the onscreen characters portrayed by Jolie. “Dear Gia,’ ‘Dear Lisa Rowe,’ ‘Dear Lara Croft’ — and for the last 16 years, I haven’t had those letters,” Jolie said at the time. (Jolie held the title role in 1998’s TV film Gia, one year prior to playing Lisa Rowe in Girl, Interrupted, and before she played video game heroine Lara Croft in 2001’s Lara Croft: Tomb Raider.)

In Couture, Jolie plays a filmmaker named Maxine who visits Fashion Week in Paris to direct a TV show before learning about her cancer diagnosis.

Couture’s American release date is yet to be announced.