Fresh off the release of Unbreakable, Angelina Jolie is diving into the promotional interviews for her romantic drama By the Sea. Having filmed with Brad Pitt, the new flick provides ample opportunity for the tabloids to ask all sorts of Brangelina-related questions, so here’s what Jolie had to say to the New York Daily News.

Angelina Jolie
Angelina Jolie is thriving as a director and might even have her eye on politics.

“It brought us closer,” Jolie said about the By the Sea shoot. “The last time we worked together” — on the 2005 film, “Mr. and Mrs. Smith,” where they met — “it was a lighter movie. So sharing something in a deep artistic way, it’s something I think is necessary for artistic couples.”

But filming definitely wasn’t all one big love fest. Anything but, Jolie said.

“The scenes on ‘By the Sea’ were so tense that we let out (any stress) on camera. There’s really heavy fighting in it, so I think sometimes the crew felt like, ‘Mom and Dad are having a fight!’ — because Brad and I are the producers too,” she said. “Success or failure, it’s all on us.”

Check out the trailer for Unbroken below. 

For Jolie, it was the creative challenge that made the project worth all the stress.

“I had missed being that free as an actor, and to do that depth of work, and what a pleasure it was to do it with Brad, because I really saw him as an actor, not just the man I loved,” she says. “In the end, it was an amazing thing, because there’s no actor who wants to help me more, or push me more as an actress, or give me more as a director or writer than my husband, and there’s no man I want to see succeed more than him. We were so there for each other.”

For more of Jolie’s thoughts on family time and the recent, hugely successful release of By the Sea, check out the full interview here.