Angelina Jolie on Why Her Daughter Vivienne Is the Reason She Won Her First Tony Award
Oscar-winning actress Angelina Jolie got halfway to EGOT status on June 16, winning her first-ever Tony Award for her work producing The Outsiders. The Broadway show won the ceremony’s coveted Best Musical Award along with three other categories (Best Direction of a Musical, Lighting Design, and Sound Design). Jolie attended the ceremony with her daughter Vivienne, who served as her production assistant on the project. Jolie wore a teal Atelier Versace corset dress on the red carpet, while her daughter matched in a teal vest, pants, and a bow tie.
Vivienne is also the reason that Jolie got involved in the show—and ultimately won a Tony. While Jolie didn’t give an acceptance speech or any major press remarks, she spoke to Deadline on June 10 about the production and the big role Vivienne played in it. Her comments offered a rare look into what her youngest daughter is like, who has lived her 15-year life largely out of the public eye.
Jolie explained how she got involved with the project initially: “My daughter Viv loves theater. She appreciates all theater but she certainly knows what she feels close to and what she responds to. She went to see The Outsiders at La Jolla, [California] about five times and was telling me about it, and I had read the book, and I’d seen the film years ago.
“Then she asked me to come see it with her, and I thought it was just a…you know, Danya [Taymor, the Broadway show’s director] speaks of how important it is to teenagers, how it was written by somebody who’s the age of my daughter, right? So, really, as a mother, as a person, I was watching it, but I was really watching the effect it was having on my young daughter and what she was telling me about herself, and I was learning what about it was important to her and why it connected so deeply to her.
“So, it was a very different experience of understanding, of how this is having a significant effect on her as a young person right now, and she’s communicating something to me, and that is the power of this material, which was in really good shape even by then. And then I had the privilege of watching everyone work over this last year to make it into what it is, and Vivienne has been there the whole way.”
Jolie was asked why the story resonated so much with Vivienne. She laughed and replied, “Oh, it’s hard to speak for her, because she’s a complex young woman. I think it’s just that it’s very deep, and it’s honest, and it doesn’t shy away from real feelings and real discussion and real pain, I think maybe every person that watches it might identify slightly more with one character or another, right, but what I think you see through it all is there is pain in life, right? There is fear. There is, Who am I and where do I belong? There is, Why are these people marginalized and harmed more than others? Why do these people kill themselves? What is it we’re facing in life? I think a lot of young people, especially today, these are very difficult times, and they want to have that real discussion, and they want to know what helps you get through life. What’s the reality of it? Like, don’t sugarcoat things for teenagers, is what I learned from S. E. Hinton [the author of the novel, which inspired the subsequent movie and Broadway show]. Meet them where they’re at, and it’s heavy, and it’s real, and these are the biggest, most complex times as you form into a person and realize certain hard truths about life, and what gets you through.”
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