J. Michael Straczynski collaborated with director Clint Eastwood (Hollywood icon and chair-whisperer) and talented and Oscar-winning actress Angelina Jolie in Changeling.
Angelina Jolie and Clint Eastwood while making Changeling
“The Great Maker,” aka Michael Straczynski, is a prolific writer whose execution is known as a work of art. His movie Changeling is also one of his masterpieces that will make you cry, and after watching this fantastic film, you will definitely feel satisfied.
Angelina Jolie Became Clingy With Her Kids Because of The Movie
Angelina Jolie in Changeling
Changeling was released in 2008 and based on real-life events, specifically the 1928 Wineville Chicken Coop murders in Mira Loma, California. It follows the story of Christine Collins (Angelina Jolie), whose nine-year-old son vanished from their home mysteriously.
Amid a media circus, a few months later, the Los Angeles Police Capt. J.J. Jones (Jeffrey Donovan) informs Collins that they have found the boy, who she realizes is not her missing son Walter (Gattlin Griffith).
When she tries to prove this and asks the LAPD to find the real Walter, they swiftly move against her. They spread fake news about her being an unfit mom and sent her to Los Angeles County Hospital for treatment.
Changeling is a disturbing yet all-too-real tale, but it was more terrifying for Jolie, who already had six children when she boarded the film. Earlier, Angie hesitated to sign on, as she said during the Changeling press tour, explaining:
“[The idea of] anything happening to your kids… [That was] the reason I didn’t want to do the film for a long time. I read [the script] and wanted to keep it as far away from me as possible. But it’s also a great story of justice, and I love the film. But, no, every day on set, I came home, and I was so clingy to my kids I think I bugged them. I was grabbing them, and I was checking them in the middle of the night. It scared me; it still scares me.”
The film’s aura traumatized the actress, and the grief used to strike her head after leaving the set of Changeling every day.
Changeling Was Full of Nightmares for Angelina Jolie
Angelina Jolie
Changeling is no doubt one of the most personal entries in Angelina Jolie’s career about parenthood. In the lead-up to its theatrical release, she explained:
“Certainly, so much of it is being a mother and imagining, if this was happening to me, my pain and my frustration. But I did have to find something else because… I couldn’t respond the way, of course, I would respond today.”
She went on to continue her personal story of how she lost her mother a few months before the film, and to her, Christine Collins was very much like her mother. Jolie also said that her mother was very passive in many ways, but she was a lion when it came to her children.
All these mixed emotions gave the Gia actress second-hand trauma. Besides, Changeling is a fine piece of technical craftsmanship and a must-watch that captures early L.A. beautifully with its period details.
Watch Changeling on Amazon Prime Video.
