Angelina Jolie Says It Was Hard to Find Strength to Play Maleficent Again: 'I Was Pretty Broken'

Angelina Jolie had to work to find the strength to play Maleficent again in the upcoming sequel.

Jolie put the horns back on last summer to shoot Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, which comes out this Friday, marking her first acting role in four years.

“It was a tough time,” Jolie tells PEOPLE of returning to the character in this week’s issue. “I’d been coming off a few years of difficulty, and I was not feeling very strong. In fact, I was feeling pretty broken. It took me a moment to feel the strength of [Maleficent] again.”

For more on Jolie, pick up this week’s issue of PEOPLE, on stands Friday.

Jolie, 44, shares six children with her ex-husband Brad Pitt, 55: daughters Zahara, 14, Shiloh, 13, and Vivienne, 11, and sons Maddox, 18, Pax, 15, and Knox, 11.

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But while her six kids hung around in London with their mom during most of the shoot, Jolie couldn’t get them to appear on screen this time. Even Vivienne, Jolie’s youngest daughter who appeared as a young Aurora in the 2014 original, wasn’t into it.

“I tried,” Jolie says. “Viv still can’t believe I made her a princess. None of my kids want to be actors. [They’re into] business, humanitarian affairs, things like that. Nobody was interested!”

Jolie previously shared that her inner strength comes from the love of her six children.

At the Los Angeles premiere of her newest movie, the actress spoke to PEOPLE about her love for her family. When asked where she got her strength from, Jolie sweetly said, “My kids.”

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While her oldest son couldn’t attend the premiere, Jolie was joined by her kids, along with her brother James Haven and father Jon Voight.

Voight, 80, praised Jolie at the premiere, telling PEOPLE his daughter was “very strong.”

“She has a certain persona that is hers alone, and she sits in it very comfortably,” he said.

Maleficent: Mistress of Evil is in theaters Friday.