Angelina Jolie Says She Learned ‘More’ About Daughter Vivienne, 15, While Producing

The actress shares her six kids with ex-husband Brad Pitt.

Vivienne Jolie-Pitt and Angelina Jolie. 

Angelina Jolie owes her role as a producer on Broadway’s The Outsiders to her daughter Vivienne.

In an interview with Deadline alongside The Outsiders director Danya Taymor, the actress, 48, revealed how her 15-year-old daughter’s love for theater and The Outsiders allowed her to learn more about the teenager while producing the show together.

“My daughter Viv loves theater.

She appreciates all theater but she certainly knows what she feels close to and what she responds to,” Jolie explained.

“She went to see The Outsiders at La Jolla about five times and was telling me about it, and I had read the book, and I’d seen the film years ago.”.

What initially drew Jolie to the show was the “power of the material” she witnessed through Vivienne’s eyes.

“It was a very different experience of understanding, of how this is having a significant effect on her as a young person right now, and she’s communicating something to me, and that is the power of this material,” Jolie told Deadline.

“And then I had the privilege of watching everyone work over this last year to make it into what it is, and Vivienne has been there the whole way.”.

Working as a producer assistant on the show, Vivienne was there every step of the way, and as Jolie explained, “it was a moment to learn more about Viv.”.

“After we saw it, we were contacted by the producers, and they said, did you enjoy it, and we said yes, and they said, what did you like? So Viv and I sat together and we wrote down what we liked, what we were curious about.

And they responded to our notes.

For me, it was a moment to learn more about Viv, not me thinking of becoming a producer.”.

Even director Taymor noticed Vivienne’s “incredible eye” for the show’s production.

“Technical rehearsals in the theater are not for the faint of heart.

They’re long days, and it moved me so much that Angelina was there, because that’s how you earn people’s trust, and she gave us that. She had so much skin in the game and so much curiosity about it all, and same thing with Vivienne,” Taymor told Deadline.

“Vivienne would watch the show and give me the most amazing notes. Like, incredible eye. So, it was a wonderful, wonderful support, and also, obviously, made the work better.”.

Thanks to the work of Jolie, Vivienne, Taymor, and so many others, The Outsiders is nominated for 12 Tonys, including best musical. at the awards on June 16.

Jolie shares her six kids — twins Knox and Vivienne, daughters Shiloh, 17, and Zahara, 18, as well as sons Pax, 20, and Maddox, 22 — with ex-husband Brad Pitt.

The actress first announced that she was producing the Broadway adaptation of S.E. Hinton’s novel and Francis Ford Coppola’s 1983 film The Outsiders in August 2023.

During the musical’s April 2024 opening night, Jolie told PEOPLE that Vivienne was the one who inspired her to take on the project.

“She saw an early workshop a few times and then invited me to it,” the actress said.

“Viv is a young artist who focuses her efforts on her support of others,” Jolie added.

“She has been there to assist in any way she can and has learned so much from [score and co-book writer] Justin Levine and the whole creative team.”.