Actress Angelina Jolie is starring in and directing the highly anticipated film By the Sea, alongside her husband, Brad Pitt. The romantic drama saw the Hollywood couple exploring deep emotional depths on-screen, that often made it difficult off-screen. In a recent interview with the Wall Street Journal, Jolie revealed which scenes were most difficult to film with her hubby and how going home to be "dorky parents" made everything better.

Set in 1970s France, By the Sea surrounds a husband and wife whose marriage is falling apart. Despite being on vacation at a luxurious resort, the American writer (Pitt) and his wife Vanessa (Jolie) can't help but unravel at the seams as they come to terms with unresolved issues in their relationship.

Intimately portraying an explosive relationship, involving both physical and mental violence, became extremely tough for the veteran actors because they were not allowed to comfort each other after the scenes. The scenes left Jolie and Pitt stripped emotionally bare.

“We had to stay in our corners, like boxers, and not be husband and wife,” Jolie said to WSJ. “It was very hard to do those scenes without Brad and I taking care of each other. Normally in between takes, you’d make sure that the other’s OK, but we had to be able to really get ugly.”

Pitt, who's never been directed by Jolie in a film, revealed being a couple helped them easily communicate through looks, figuring out whether a scene was acted out well or if they needed to do it over. The looks tended to come from Jolie.

The two began shooting the film shortly after their August 2014 wedding, so just how did the 40-year-old humanitarian and her 51-year-old newlywed husband manage to not let their work interfere with their blossoming marriage? Coming home to their six children made the stressful days at work worth it, according to the interview.

“But as soon as we got home, it was bedtime stories, children’s needs and problems, the fights they’d had during the day," Jolie told WSJ. "We had to immediately snap back to something that was uniting and positive and loving.”

A photo posted by Wall Street Journal (@wsj) on Nov 4, 2015 at 4:40pm PST

Retreating back to domestic life brings stability to their lives. Jolie gushed about being a dorky parent with Pitt. Whether it's waking up to make breakfast or going on family adventures, the Jolie-Pitt clan find time to share fun experiences together.

“When Angie has a day off, the first thing she does is get up and take the kids out," Pitt told WSJ. "This is the most important ‘to do’ of the day. No matter how tired she might be, she plans outings for each and all. She has an incredible knack for inventing crazy experiences for them, something new, something fresh. I may be the bigger goof of the pair, but she invents the stage.”

By the Sea is scheduled to hit theaters on Nov. 13.

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