While she did not specifically detail what the struggle was, Angelina, 45, has been engaged in a lengthy custody battle with ex-husband Brad Pitt since 2016, following their split after more than a decade together and over two years of marriage.

Brad and Angelina announced their split in 2016 and were legally divorced in 2019, but things are far from amicable as she has alleged domestic abuse.

They have been at war over their kids for five years, with Brad striving for 50/50 custody with Angelina wanting full physical custody.

She has six children, three of which – Maddox, 19, Pax, 17, and Zahara, 16 – were adopted, and three with Brad – Shiloh, 14 and twins Knox and Vivienne, 12.

Angelina seemed to allude to this time of her life as she plugged Those Who Wish Me Dead, where she plays smoke jumper named Hannah, who finds herself tangled up in a deadly situation when she helps a young murder witness.

Angelina and her co-star Finn Little were promoting the movie in a new interview with Access Hollywood, when she revealed she relates to the character due to the emotional struggles she is faced off.

She said: ‘I felt a little beaten up in my own life, as we all do at times, and I felt like I wasn’t holding myself together and I felt a little broken and the idea of just getting through the fire – just getting through the damn fire…

‘Whatever it takes, with everything coming at you, get through it, so when you feel that way as a person and you have the great opportunity to have a piece of art that you can manifest that experience and that growth through a character…

‘Quite literally, we go through that fire and it’s hot and it’s hard…when we got to the other end it did really feel like we’d done something’.

One glaring difference she pointed out was that her character does not have kids.

She said: ‘My character doesn’t have children, doesn’t like children or isn’t really comfortable with children’ – far different from Angelina and her expansive brood.

Angelina then revealed she was always ‘hanging out’ with her young co-star Finn on the weekends, adding she, ‘really cared for Finn as soon as I met him.’

She added: ‘Part of it was how not to parent school of parenting, but Finn is also so tough, he’s a real extremely talented actor.’

Finn, 14, also added: ‘I’ll admit, in the audition when I met you, I was just freaking out. I was so nervous.’

He added he was flown from Australia to Los Angeles, adding, ‘so much was riding on this’ and he was, ‘about to break down.’

Angelina added that when they would film these scenes and they would get through the fire, there was a real sense of accomplishment between them both.

Finn added: ‘It was hard at times but I think it definitely paid off’.

Angelina also spoke about her Marvel movie Eternals. She plays Thena in the Marvel Studios superhero adventure, and when asked if it was a movie for the whole family, she hoped her kids could get over her costume.

She said: ‘I hope so, as long as my kids get over the shock of me in a gold suit’.

Source: dailymail.co.uk