Angelina Jolie has said she worried if she was "strong" or "stable" enough for her challenging new role in the film Those Who Wish Me Dead.
The Hollywood star plays a smokejumper, a specially trained wildland firefighter, in the new survival action-thriller which also features acclaimed Irish actor Aidan Gillen.
She has admitted that she struggled with self-doubt ahead of making the film.
"I think we all have times in our lives where we just feel broken," she told PA in a Zoom interview.
"And I'm certainly one of those people. And so I came into this not feeling strong at all, and not knowing if I had it even in me to pull through this.
"And, like everybody, I carry my own trauma, my own grief, different things that have happened in my life.
"And so it was very cathartic. Can I pull myself through? Can I get to the other end of this? Am I strong enough? Am I stable enough?"
The Tomb Raider and Maleficent star has had a difficult time over recent years. She underwent a preventative double mastectomy in 2013 and split from her former husband Brad Pitt, with whom she shares six children, in 2016.
She has spoken about her medical struggles since the break-up, after being diagnosed with Bell's Palsy, a condition which causes paralysis of facial muscles, and high blood pressure.
Jolie naturally felt trepidation about taking on a physically demanding film role. In the movie her character Hannah is reeling from the loss of three lives she failed to save from a fire when she comes across a traumatised 12-year-old boy Connor (Finn Little).
She helps him flee as he is being chased by two assassins, played by Nicholas Hoult and Aidan Gillen, braving lightning storms and a huge fiery blaze as they attempt to outrun them.
Reflecting on the action, the 45-year-old said: "It did feel new. I'm older, and it’s not just that my body was different, it was just that I’m different. And it’s been about a decade or so since I’ve done anything like that.
"And then of course there’s that moment at the beginning where you think, 'What am I doing?’
"And my kids (Maddox, 19, Pax, 17, Zahara, 16, Shiloh, 14, and twins Knox and Vivienne, 12) are not used to seeing me do these things because really during the ages they were growing up, I was directing.
"So it was kind of like Mom did that a long time ago, so Mom doing any of that is almost funny to my children now, but I think actually it was really good for them.
"It was nice to see me survive and be strong. But it was weird, I definitely had it in my mind, thinking maybe I’m not capable of this anymore."
Those Who Wish Me Dead is released in cinemas from May 17.
