Angelina Jolie opens up in two new interviews, discussing everything from her latest project to her post-split life with People and the New York Times. Acknowledging that she and her six children with ex Brad Pitt have "been a bit in lockdown and going through some things" since she filed for divorce last year, she says they're now ready to "get out there" again. A big part of that seems to be First They Killed My Father, a movie based on a memoir about surviving Cambodia's Khmer Rouge genocide that Jolie made for Netflix (it debuts Friday). Jolie brought all six kids to the film's premiere Monday, and talks to the Times quite a bit about what the movie means to her—before getting more personal.
"They're the best friends I've ever had. Nobody in my life has ever stood by me more," she says of her children at one point in the Times. And to People, she notes that as she plans to start working more again, they will still be her first priority. "I haven’t worked for over a year now because they needed me home. Everything was just stopped." (In his own interview with People, Maddox, who has an executive producer credit on the new film, calls his mother "a wonder.") As for how they're doing in the wake of the separation, in a voice that the Times writer says gets quieter and quieter, Jolie says "None of it's easy. It's very, very difficult, a very painful situation, and I just want my family healthy. They're getting better." She hits a slightly more optimistic note with People, noting the "ups and downs" and "difficult times" of the past year but concluding, "I guess I am a little bit stronger." (More Angelina Jolie stories.)