"It's funny when you meet someone as famous as that because they look so familiar," says Nora Twomey, about her first meeting with Angelina Jolie.
The director at the Irish animation studio Cartoon Saloon had flown to Los Angeles to meet the Hollywood star, after the script for their latest Oscar nominated film, The Breadwinner, had caught Jolie's attention.
“She’s a really gracious person, very warm and down to earth so she would put you at ease pretty quickly as well,” she tells Róisín Ingle, on the latest episode of the Róisín Meets podcast.
Jolie came on board with Cartoon Saloon as an executive producer for The Breadwinner, which tells the story of 11-year-old Afghan girl Parvana.
This weekend, they will find out if they have bagged the Best Animated Feature Oscar at the Academy Awards.
It's the third time Cartoon Saloon have found themselves in this position - In 2010 The Secret of Kells was nominated in the same category and in 2015 Song of the Sea - but it has been a surprise every time, says Twomey.
On today’s podcast, she also speaks about her start in animation, the importance of normalising families in the workplace, the MeToo movement, female role models, and more.
You can find all our podcasts on www.irishtimes.com/podcasts.
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