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While the interesting insight into how Angelina Jolie has dealt with her divorce from Brad Pitt made headlines last week, it was her casting technique used in her new film First they Killed My Father that drew staunch criticism. The 42-year-old actress and United Nations ambassador featured on the cover of the current issue of Vanity Fair and the journalist has detailed the “game” in which Jolie uses to audition Cambodian children.

The publication goes on to detail that these children were given money – some believed it to be for their families – and then the money was “snatched away” to test their emotional responses as a means of auditioning. Jolie has taken no time in hitting back at these incredulous claims.

I am upset that a pretend exercise in an improvisation, from an actual scene in the film, has been written about as if it was a real scenario,” she wrote in a statement to Huffington Post. “The suggestion that real money was taken from a child during an audition is false and upsetting. I would be outraged myself if this had happened.”

“Every measure was taken to ensure the safety, comfort and well-being of the children on the film starting from the auditions through production to the present,” she continued. “Parents, guardians, partner NGOs whose job it is to care for children, and medical doctors were always on hand everyday, to ensure everyone had all they needed. And above all to make sure that no one was in any way hurt by participating in the recreation of such a painful part of their country’s history.”

Some initial reactions from readers below show the level of slander the actress was receiving.

 

Sorry Vanity Fair, no game.