Jon Voight: Angelina Jolie ‘Doing Good’ After Double Mastectomy, Ready To Direct
Jon Voight said Angelina Jolie is “doing good” after undergoing a double mastectomy in February.
Earlier this year, Jolie opted to undergo a double mastectomy after learning that she carries a gene that increases her risk for breast and ovarian cancer. She also had her ovaries removed. Jolie’s mother, actress Marcheline Bertrand, died from ovarian cancer in 2007.
In May, Voight — who was estranged from his daughter for years — said he was “as surprised as anyone” by the way Jolie handled things after her diagnosis. He said he saw her after the surgery and had no idea that she had had her breasts removed. Voight said he found out about the surgery online, but that he understood why Jolie didn’t tell him ahead of time. He said he wanted the “focus to be on the inspiration” and that Jolie educated him about everything afterward.
Jon Voight told People Monday that the 38-year-old is “getting ready to do her film [Unbroken], to direct her film.” Unbroken is based on the true story of Olympic runner Louis Zamperini, who was captured during World War II and forced to live in Japanese POW camps. The movie starts filming in October. Ethan and Joel Coen wrote the screenplay.
Jolie said she “immediately began to fight for the opportunity” to make Unbroken after reading Laura Hillenbrand’s book of the same name. She called Zamperini a “true hero and a man of immense humanity, faith and courage” and said she was “deeply honored to have the chance to tell his inspiring story.”
Besides directing Unbroken, Angelina Jolie is set to play Maleficent in the Disney film of the same name. The film is the “untold story of Disney’s most iconic villain from the 1959 classic Sleeping Beauty.” Maleficent was a beautiful young woman living in a peaceful forest kingdom, and has to protect it when an invading army comes in. Maleficent suffers a betrayal that turns her heart to stone, and she is bent on exacting revenge against the invading king’s successor, Aurora (Sleeping Beauty).
[Photo credit: Featureflash / Shutterstock.com]
