Angelina Jolie Dieted to Support Unbroken Actors

And tried out lead actor's stunts, cast says
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 24, 2014 9:50 AM CST
Angelina Jolie Dieted to Support Unbroken Actors
In this image released by Universal Pictures, director Angelina Jolie, left, and Jack O'Connell appear on the set of "Unbroken."   (AP Photo/Universal Pictures, David James)

Angelina Jolie's film Unbroken is about Louis Zamperini, the former Olympic athlete who first spent 47 days drifting in the ocean during World War II, then two years in a Japanese POW camp—so, needless to say, lead actor Jack O'Connell and others portraying inmates at the camp had to lose a lot of weight. As the director, Jolie showed a lot of solidarity, one of the actors tells RadioTimes.com. "She came to the set every day, giving advice to the actors, and she actually didn't eat much [either]," says Miyavi, who plays the prison guard overseeing the camp. "She was so thin because most of the actors were not able to eat because they're prisoners in the prison camp. So she was so close to us."

And, O'Connell adds, Jolie did one more thing: "She did test out all of my stunts before I had to do them," he says. In one scene, he had to spend hours supporting a heavy plank above his head. "The plank—I’m not sure if that can be regarded as a stunt—but, in any case, she was under it before I turned up on set," he says. (One of the Unbroken actors lost so much weight, his contacts stopped fitting.)

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