Jolie good time

TOKYO — Angelina Jolie is beaming these days. The 33-year-old actress was all smiles during a visit to Japan last week with Brad Pitt and their six children, attending movie premieres, shopping at Kiddyland and promoting her new film “Changeling,” for which she picked up a best actress nomination. “We’ve had a wonderful year,” said Jolie, looking good in a Ralph Lauren dress with Mikimoto accessories.

Directed by Clint Eastwood, “Changeling” tells the true story of Christine Collins, a single mother whose 9-year-old son is kidnapped in LA in 1928. After several months, the police return the wrong boy to her and insist he is her son, leading her to a very public fight against the corrupt justice system. “I read a lot of old newspapers and court transcripts,” said Jolie. “I actually based my portrayal on my own mother who was very gentle and soft-spoken but who always found the strength to fight for her children.”

She said working with Eastwood was a learning experience. “Clint is very gracious and a leader. He likes to keep things moving. It was a bit of shock at first just doing just one or two takes. You can’t afford to be lazy; you have to be prepared. Having said that, the film is so emotional that I appreciated not having to do scenes more than once or twice.”

Surprisingly, Jolie said she first said no when she was offered the part. “However, as a mother, I couldn’t forget Christine’s story and what such a loss must have been like. It is a story about justice. She was a single mother in the 1920s and thought she couldn’t make a difference. Women like her are my heroes. I want to go around the world and meet women who are standing up to oppression and injustice. The plight of Japanese abductees in North Korea was recently brought to my attention and I would also like to meet their mothers.”

Jolie said that she has received a lot of feedback over “Changeling.” “Most people said they just wanted to go home and hug their children. I feel that way, too. Every day I am remained how fortunate I am to have the kids close by, though we all seem to be suffering a lot of jet lag recently,” she said, in reference to all the traveling she and Pitt have been doing for the past year.

Jolie, who has been a goodwill ambassador for the U.N. Refugee Agency for the past eight years, said she is driven by a “sense of what is right in my gut. The fights I choose to have on international issues don’t follow any specific themes. It’s just based on what I think is right.”

Jolie said she is looking forward to the Academy Awards, for which Pitt has also been nominated for best actor. “It’s fun to be nominated together. The kids are funny because we don’t really talk to them about our work. They think ‘Kung-Fu Panda’ is the extent of my career.”