Marilla Sicilia/Archivio Marilla Sicilia/Mondadori Portfolio via Getty Images(LOS ANGELES) — Angelina Jolie was very familiar with the source material for her new Disney+ movie The One and Only Ivan, and she has her 14-year-old daughter, Shiloh, to thank for it.
In a video chat with Entertainment Tonight, the Oscar-winning actress explains she was eager to provide a voice in the film and to produce it, because it’s based on one of Shiloh’s favorite books.
“Well, Shiloh years ago told me that she had read a book that she loved and she wanted me to read it,” Jolie explained. “I read it on my own and then we looked at some of it together and we talked about why she loved it,” Jolie recalled.
As the book by K. A. Applegate was being adapted, Jolie took a role in shepherding it as a producer, to “push it to stay as true to the book as possible,” she says.
Inspired by a true story, The One and Only Ivan centers on a captive gorilla named Ivan — voiced by another Oscar winner, Sam Rockwell — who learned to express himself via watercolor painting.
Jolie voices an aging elephant named Stella, and Helen Mirren and Danny DeVito lend their voices to some of Ivan’s circus pals. Emmy-winner Bryan Cranston plays the ringmaster/owner of the animals.
The One and Only Ivan debuts exclusively on Disney+ on Aug. 21.
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By Stephen Iervolino
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