Angelina Jolie Asks: ‘What Am I Supposed To Be Doing With My Life?’

Even Angelina Jolie has self-doubt when it comes to her career.

The 38-year-old actor/director, and mother of six, is speaking out about her third directorial effort, “Unbroken,” about former Olympic distance runner Louis Zamperini, who helped changes the star’s life.

“I imagine that for the last 10-something years, he’s been sitting there having a coffee in the morning and wondering who’s going to make this movie,” Angelina said in an interview with Tom Brokaw that aired on the “Today” show on Tuesday.

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“And I’ve been sitting in my room laying there thinking, ‘What am I supposed to be doing with my life? I wanna do something important. I wanna connect. I need some help. I need some guidance. Where is it?’ And it was right outside my window,” she said, explaining that she was unsure about what project to pursue next after directing “In the Land of Blood and Honey.”

After Angelina met and became friends with Louis (who lives in the same neighborhood as the star) she said she felt “such a huge responsibility to get it right, because I love him so much and he’s helped me so much in my life.”

But bringing the World War II survival story to the big screen was not easy.

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“This has been the hardest thing I’ve ever done,” she said, explaining that she crafted handmade poster boards for meetings with Universal. “I pitched my butt off.”

The actress/director hopes audiences take away that the world “can seem hopeless and it can seem very overwhelming, the resilience and the strength of the human spirit is an extraordinary thing.”

“Unbroken” with Garrett Hedlund and Jack O’Connell as Louis Zamperini is slated to debut in theaters on December 25, 2014.

— Jesse Spero