Jolie's 'giant responsibility'

Angelina Jolie says taking on her new movie was a “giant responsibility”.

The actress stepped behind the camera for upcoming WWII drama Unbroken, based on the life of late US Olympian and war hero Louis Zamperini.

The veteran passed away last month at the age of 97.

And Angelina says she’ll never forget when she showed Louis the film before he died.

“I brought it on my laptop to the hospital,” the movie star-turned-director told Entertainment Weekly.

“It was a deeply moving, very profound few hours of my life. Telling his story is a giant responsibility.”

Unbroken is based on Laura Hillenbrand’s 2010 best-selling novel about Louis’ life, chronicling how he competed with the 1936 Olympic track team before enlisting in the US Air Force.

The veteran survived a crash in the Pacific Ocean, and spent more than a month lost at sea before he was captured by Japanese soldiers and spent the following two years as a prisoner of war.

Jack O’Connell takes on the role, and told EW he lost nearly 30 pounds for the film. He credits both Louis and Angelina with inspiring the cast and crew to make the feature a compelling piece of work that would honour the vet’s memory.

“You learn not to think of your own problems,” he said. “That’s something you can attribute to Louie and Angie—they both strive to be selfless every day.”

Unbroken is slated to hit theatres in the US December 25.