Angelina Jolie is back in theaters with Warner Bros./New Line’s latest film, Those Who Wish Me Dead.
In the film, Jolie plays Hannah, who is described as a smoke jumper still reeling from the loss of three lives she failed to save from a fire when she comes across a traumatized 12-year-old boy with nowhere else to turn.
Directed by Taylor Sheridan, the film also stars Nicholas Hoult, Finn Little, Aiden Gillen, Medina Senghore, Tyler Perry, Jake Weber and Jon Bernthal.
The Western-tinged thriller puts a spotlight on the dangerous jobs of firefighters who put out things like massive wildfires and how it is such a dangerous occupation.
Jolie told Shadow and Act, “If I didn’t have it already, which I did, but really [I gained] such a huge, huge respect [for firefighters]. I am in awe of what they can do. This tiny sliver of being in all of the gear and having trees on fire around us and all the precautions, but we did have fire that would jump and suddenly get really hot and kind of disorienting and not being able. [Just a] sliver of what they experience…and I had all this protection around me and it was really intense.”
The actress, who marks a return to thrillers with this movie, says she thinks it is important to honor those in positions like this. “I don’t know how they do it,” she continued. “And the kind of person that would choose to jump out of a plane into a fire? Thank God we have them because they’re all keeping us safe and fighting back these fires that we’re only seeing more of these days. So, we really need to spend [more time] to honor them more.
Senghore, who plays Allison in the movie, is put in similarly precarious situations as Jolie’s Hannah. What’s more nerve-wracking than working your way through fire while chasing an assassin? Allison is the pregnant wife of Ethan, who is played by Jon Bernthal.
“The jumping-off point for me was [when] we meet Allison on the day that,” Senghore told us says of channeling her character for this do-or-die situation.
“There’s a day in your pregnancy that it turns from being cute, to being uncomfortable. And I feel like we kind of meet her in that transition and she’s expecting that that’s her worst challenge right now. And then the world comes crashing in on her and she faces the unimaginable. Then from there, the story just happens to her and character is revealed through those hardships. And I think that’s a theme with all of the characters in the movie. The challenge shows up, and then what shows up in them.”
Those Who Wish Me Dead is in theaters this Friday and will also be available on HBO Max for 30 days.
