The couple spoke to ET on the red carpet at the AFI Festival on Thursday.
Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have always been something of an unconventional couple, so when the two followed up their August 2014 nuptials by jetting off to work on By the Sea, a film about “a couple on the brink of disaster,” no one batted an eye.
The couple spoke with ET at the film’s premiere on opening night of AFI Fest in Hollywood, California on Thursday and opened up about working together on the project, which Jolie wrote, directed, and starred in opposite her real-life husband.
“It was a good time,” Pitt told ET’s Kevin Frazier. “We came out stronger on the other end. Just, making something together, and something she wrote, it was a real pleasure.”
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“It's an odd honeymoon,” Jolie admitted. “A few weeks into it, we wondered if it was a good idea because it is ... heavy and it's a lot of fighting. But we had the thought that if we can do it, if we can be close in that way and that open as artists, then you push through and you really get closer and you learn something.”
“If it doesn't work it's the worst honeymoon ever,” she added with a laugh, “but if it works you've learned something and I think that's how we came out of it stronger.”
Some couples might have a hard time transitioning their personal relationship to a professional one, but Pitt said having his wife helm the film was “no different” than working with any other director.
“She knows when I'm faking it better than anyone else, but, you know, the actor/director relationship is a very collaborative experience,” he explained. “It's really no different, and actually a great pleasure, ‘cause you’ve got to trust your director. Who do I trust more than my wife?”
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For Jolie, the experience behind the camera was slightly different because of how well the couple knows each other’s moods.
“[Brad] told me that it was hard, because I think he could tell without me saying anything,” she said. “As a director, you usually don't want the actor to know everything you're thinking, but as my husband he can kind of look at me. I can say ‘It's fine’ and he'll say ‘No, no, you're just saying that.’”
Despite the unusual atmosphere on set, however, Jolie seems more than pleased with Pitt’s performance in the film, out Nov. 13.
“He's obviously an extraordinary actor so I felt very, very lucky. And in this film I think people will see he’s very open. I think he gives an extraordinary performance, a very different performance then people are used to seeing him in. I am very privileged that he felt safe to to be that way with me.”
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