Angelina Jolie admits she felt “nervous” while filming Couture, Alice Winocour’s French- and English-language ensemble drama. Jolie stars as Maxine Walker, a filmmaker known for low-budget horror who is unexpectedly hired by a French fashion house to create a movie for its Paris Fashion Week runway show.
While juggling the pressures of work, parenting, and divorce, Maxine receives devastating news: she has an aggressive form of breast cancer. “This film felt incredibly personal,” Jolie shares from London, ahead of the movie’s world premiere at TIFF. “It was so intimate that, in my mind, it hardly even felt like making a film.”
Though not a biopic, Couture strongly mirrors Jolie’s own experiences. In 2013, she revealed through a New York Times op-ed that she had undergone a preventative double mastectomy after testing positive for the BRCA1 gene mutation, which significantly raises the risk of breast and ovarian cancer. Jolie lost both her mother and grandmother to the disease, making the film’s themes resonate deeply with her.
Winocour, who wrote the script with Jolie in mind, says, “I always felt she was connected to this story. I wanted to work with her for years, and I thought it would be powerful to show her vulnerability — the woman behind the icon. Angelina is part of Hollywood, but she also pushes against the system, which makes her a kind of rebel.”
In one of the film’s most emotional moments, Maxine’s doctor explains the need for a double mastectomy and marks the surgical incision lines on her chest. Jolie acknowledges the role stirred up personal memories: “Of course, it touches on many things I’ve lived through. But I’ve found that the heaviest films often have the most compassionate sets. Everyone shares in those moments, because nearly everyone has faced illness or loss. That sense of connection was very healing.”
Jolie even wore one of her late mother’s necklaces during filming. “It made me feel vulnerable,” she says, before laughing, “and I was nervous about speaking French, too.”
The actress learned French for the film, something Winocour says she embraced fully: “She was more dedicated to perfecting it than I was. Her mother was French, so it felt very personal for her.”
Beyond Jolie’s character, Couture weaves together two additional storylines: Angèle (Ella Rumpf), a makeup artist with dreams of writing, and Ada (Anyier Anei), a South Sudanese model making her Paris debut.
For Anei, who comes from South Sudan and is new to acting, working alongside Jolie was intimidating at first. “I felt imposter syndrome,” she admits. “But Angelina was incredibly kind and patient. On our first day, we even talked about Sudan, and I immediately felt I belonged.” Winocour encouraged Anei to avoid formal acting lessons to preserve her natural presence on screen.
Like the delicate stitching of couture garments, the three women’s stories are intertwined through the fashion world. “It’s as if they’re three versions of the same woman — in her 20s, 30s, and 40s,” Winocour explains.
For Jolie, the ensemble also speaks to something larger: “It’s about women’s bodies, their lives, and the ways we affect one another. Despite our differences, we’re bound together in this fabric of humanity — and, in this case, by the sisterhood between these women.”
Couture also made history as the first fictional film allowed to shoot inside Chanel’s Paris showroom and atelier. Winocour describes the access as invaluable: “I met the seamstresses and workers who bring fashion to life. Most films focus on male artistic directors, but I wanted to highlight the female perspective and the unsung labor behind the glamour.”
For Anei, who has modeled for major houses like Chanel, Dior, and Gucci, this rang true: “People think of fashion as money, glory, and beauty. But the real foundation is the craftsmanship of those working behind the scenes. They’re the ones who truly hold fashion together.”