Angelina Jolie blasts ‘false and upsetting’ claims that she tempted Cambodian children with money

Angelina Jolie has refuted “false” claims that she played tricks on impoverished children to cast them in her upcoming film, saying it was a “pretend exercise in an improvisation.”

Jolie, 42, faced a backlash after she said casting directors played a game which involved tempting children with money to see their reaction.

She said she was looking to find a child who had experienced real hardship to star as the young Loung Ung in First They Killed My Father.

Speaking to Variety she said: “Srey Moch [the girl ultimately chosen for the part] was the only child that stared at the money for a very, very long time.

“When she was forced to give it back, she became overwhelmed with emotion. All these different things came flooding back.”

The actress and UN special envoy was branded “cruel” and the game “traumatising”.

But Jolie has said her words were misinterpreted and that claims she snatched money back from the children were “false and upsetting”.

In a statement she said: “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. 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.

“The point of this film is to bring attention to the horrors children face in war, and to help fight to protect them.”

Jolie, who will direct the biographical film which focuses on Ung’s childhood under the brutal Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia, insisted that “no one was in any way hurt”.

She continued: “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.

“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.”