The pair worked together on the 2015 film By The Sea, on which Angelina said:
“It should have been good for us. We had met working together [on Mr. & Mrs. Smith] and we worked together well ... I wanted us to do some serious work together and I wanted to see him do that kind of work.”
“I thought it would be a good way for us to communicate,” she continued. “In some ways it was, and in some ways we learned some things. But there was a heaviness probably during that situation that carried on and it wasn't because of the film. It was something that we were dealing ... things happen for different reasons, and things … why did I write that exact piece? Why did we feel the way we did when we made it? I'm not sure."
“A piece of art can be something that's healing or something that's difficult,” she continued. “I'm happy we did that film because we did explore something together. Whatever it was, maybe it didn't solve certain things, but we did communicate something that needed to be communicated to each other."