Life Imitates Art as Jolie’s Maleficent Learns to Let Go

We attended a press junket as a guest of Disney

After seeing the upcoming live-action film Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, I had the honor of attending an event the following day. At the event, the cast came to talk with a group of us about bringing the film to life.

The cast was welcomed into the room by the moderator, and everyone in the audience clapped upon their arrival. It was a moment that I’ll never forget getting to be present in the room with some of the most talented actors in the industry.

Reprising her role as Maleficent in Disney’s Maleficent: Mistress of Evil was not as difficult as Angelina Jolie imagined it would be. Jolie spoke about her role at a press conference supporting the film in theaters on October 18th.

Although four years have passed since the original film, the theme of a mother’s love and the connection was more poignant in this sequel. Jolie was reflective throughout filming, as her children have grown, and one has left her nest.

Princess Aurora, who, in effect, became Maleficent’s daughter at the end of the first film, is now an adult and ready to wed Prince Phillip. That means Maleficent must let her go. Comparing her character’s struggle to allow her daughter to marry with her own grown children, Jolie recounted her oldest son Maddox’s move to Korea to attend Yonsei University this fall.

“I thought I was preparing for him to go. And I was making sure he had the right shoes, the right jacket, the right glasses,” she said. “You work so hard as a mother, right? And you’re helping him,” said Jolie. At the airport, he asked her if she was ok. It was then she realized the whole week of prep had been about her son making sure Mom was ok, not the other way around.

Speaking again about Maleficent’s relationship with Princess Aurora, she related, “There’s a part of this movie where I have to let her go a bit, and it wasn’t in the script, but I didn’t quite let her go,” Jolie said. “Diaval has to come in and say, ‘Let her go.’ And that got me every time because I would think of all of my kids. It’s that moment that you really let them go.”

Angelina Jolie does an incredible job as her role of Maleficent in Maleficent: Mistress of Evil. It is a film that I recommend mother’s seeing with their teenage daughters. There are so many great messages that your children will walk away within this film.

Don’t miss seeing Angelina Jolie as Maleficent in Maleficent: Mistress of Evil in theaters tomorrow, October 18th.

Learn more about Maleficent on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Karen Bremer is a North Orange County native. She’s a mom, freelance writer, and owner of www.shopbeecreative.com. Her company Bee Creative specializes in products for scrapbooking, card making, and paper crafting online and in person at consumer shows in major cities around the country. She is married with daughters in high school and college and enjoys Disney, the beach, and any type of live theater..