Angelina Jolie says she owes her first ever Tony award to her 15-year-old daughter
Jolie served as producer on the award-winning musical with her teenage daughter as her assistant
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Angelina Jolie has thanked her teenage daughter, Vivienne, for helping her win her first ever Tony award.
The actor, 49, netted her first Tony for her role as producer on The Outsiders: A New Musical.
Jolie attended the ceremony, which took place in New York at Lincoln Centre’s David H Koch Theatre on Sunday (16 June), alongside her daughter.
Vivienne, 15, who is one of six children that Jolie shares with her ex-husband Brad Pitt, also contributed notes on the hit Broadway production alongside her mother.
The play was one of the big winners of the night, after having received a whopping 12 nominations. You can find the full list of 2024 Tony award-winners here.
Among its triumphs, The Outsiders took home the award for best musical and best direction of a musical.
Neither Jolie nor Vivienne, however, spoke on stage. The actor was also not present backstage for reporters to speak with following the ceremony.
Speaking to Deadline recently, Jolie explained that it had been her daughter who recommended that she go see a staging of the musical in La Jolla, California.
“My daughter Viv loves theatre,” she said. “She appreciates all theatre but she certainly knows what she feels close to and what she responds to. She went to see The Outsiders at La Jolla about five times and was telling me about it, and I had read the book, and I’d seen the film years ago.”
Jolie said that seeing the “effect it was having on my young daughter and what she was telling me about herself” made her realise “what about it was important to her and why it connected so deeply to her”.
Jolie then joined the production as producer, with her daughter as her assistant.
Written in 1967 by SE Hilton, who attended the ceremony, The Outsiders is the story of 14-year-old Ponyboy Curtis, his two brothers, and best friend Johnny – a group known as the Greasers. It follows the friends as they struggle to get by in comparison to their affluent rivals, the Socs.
During his acceptance speech, producer Matthew Rego gave a special shout out to Jolie and also praised Hinton’s writing as having stood the test of time.
“Susie Hinton wrote The Outsiders 60 years ago and she has received accolades ever since. But she often says that she still gets overwhelmed when told that The Outsiders changed someone’s life because she’ll say, who might have changed anyone’s life? It’s the book. It’s not the author. It’s the message, not the messenger,” he said.
“Well Susie, I’m here to tell you that your story and its eternal message of love and family and staying gold has forever changed all of our lives. We love you.”
Elsewhere in the evening, Daniel Radcliffe became emotional as he also picked up his first ever Tony award for his role in Merrily We Roll Along.
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