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Angelina Jolie talks Salt and movie reunion with Brad Pitt

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Angelina Jolie’s Salt premieres in theaters July 23 and the spy thriller directed by Phillip Noyce has Jolie discovering in many ways she has much more in common with her spy on the run character than she previously imagined. Whereas her character, Salt, is dodging her fellow CIA operatives trying to clear her name, Angelina Jolie ducks the paparazzi that pursue her every move.

Angelina Jolie continued her talk with SheKnows (see below) after our first discussion about Salt and life with Brad Pitt and their family in France.

This time out, Jolie dishes whether her and Brad Pitt will ever reunite on film, as well as how being a parent has made her more patient and has her blissfully enjoying her life as never before.

Angelina Jolie: parenthood has changed her

SheKnows: You and Brad change up the movie-making process so one of you is available to take care of your children. Since Mr and Mrs Smith, have you two been inundated with offers to appear together on screen?

Angelina Jolie: Not a lot. There’s a lot of discussion about it [laughs]. We always read about it more than it’s really happening. It’s something that you need to think about: the audience. We’d love to work together again. We can figure out a way to have the kids with us. It’s just trying to find that thing. It’s hard as a couple to find what audiences are comfortable with seeing you as — they don’t like certain things. We would only do it if it would be good for a movie. As much as we’d like to indulge and play together, we have to find a thing that would actually be welcomed by audiences.

SheKnows: What about a cameo in one of the other’s films? Were there any cameo possibilities on Salt?

Angelina Jolie: Sure! We almost had him as the motorcycle guy in Salt. There’s a guy I knock off his motorcycle and take it and speed off somewhere. We wanted to have Brad on the bike [laughs]. But, he was with the kids that day, so we couldn’t work it out.

SheKnows: How has being a mom changed your life?

Angelina Jolie: I’ve become more patient. I’ve also been more silly. I wake up with an immediately and constant reminder of what’s important. I’m never far from that — they’re very grounding. They keep you on track with all their pleasures of life.

SheKnows: Is it hard to be attentive to six at once? I would think one would be more demanding than others…how do you balance?

Angelina Jolie: You just try to feel them. At different times, they need different things from you. If you listen to them, because there are two of us, we’re able to spread the attention around. For example, they all came with me to Cancun, and then I came home (to France) and visited with the babies because they couldn’t come to Cancun. Then, the girls came to DC with me — it’s a girl trip — and the boys are having special boy time with dad. We try to really think about it and schedule it in a way that works so that everyone has special time.

SheKnows: Do they ever try to play you off of Brad?

Angelina Jolie: No, we’re a united front [laughs].

Salt: Reuniting with director Phillip Noyce

SheKnows: Working with Phillip Noyce, a man who knows his way around the spy genre, what did you take away from him after first meeting with him about Salt?

Angelina Jolie: I knew, having worked with Phil 10 years ago, I knew he was one of those rare directors that really does love drama and dramatic films, but also enjoys a good action sequence. He’s very meticulous when it comes to research. I knew that it wouldn’t be a silly movie. I knew it would be something that was more complex than the average action movie.

SheKnows: How about the headlines with the real Russian sleeper cell arrests hitting at the same time as Salt?

Angelina Jolie: It’s so bizarre. The most important thing to remember is that we all have two sides. The two sides are the side of us that is in films, and the other side is us as citizens. It’s very important that we have a good relationship with Russia. We don’t want anything to set us back.

SheKnows: Phillip told me that if the film had come out several months ago, everyone would have seen it as a good spy thriller. No one would have believed that there are Russian spies embedded in the US. As you prepared for the movie, how did you wrap your head around the idea of Russian sleeper spies in the US?

Angelina Jolie: We never meant to do anything that was trying to tell a story to get people paranoid about it. It was certainly not our intent. We just wanted to tell a good story. Because of my age, we figured that when I was a child, it would have been during the Cold War. That would have been when I became a sleeper. People will look at the film very differently now. We had no understanding that it was that close to the surface of reality. They haven’t admitted they were spies yet, though [laughs].

SheKnows: What about speaking Russian, how was that difficult to learn?

Angelina Jolie: I love speaking Russian. It’s very, very hard. It’s a very interesting sound because it can be so hard and strong and also, very sensual and very beautiful. It’s an interesting sounding language. I had to practice it so much. I kept being told I was getting it wrong [laughs]. I would just try to get it right, but at the same time not put too much into it because I don’t want to get stuck as an actress on the line itself. It’s amazing how seductive that language can become.

Up next…Angelina Jolie dishes working while paparazzi swarm and working with Johnny Depp on The Tourist

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