Angelina Jolie talks about difficulties of directing 'Unbroken'

NEW YORK CITY (WABC) -- The book "Unbroken" sold more than 4,000,000 copies and spent three years on the New York Times Best Seller list. So a movie version was perhaps inevitable, but Angelina Jolie had to fight for the right to direct the movie based on the story of one man's remarkable courage.

The trials Louie Zamperini endured still seem impossible to survive. The former Olympic runner was shot down over the Pacific Ocean during World War II and endured 47 days on an open raft. Then, he spent more than two years in a Japanese prison camp, where he was tortured.

Zamperini returned home to fight post-traumatic stress disorder, but he remained "unbroken" and lived long enough to see his story brought to the screen by director Angelina Jolie.

"It's a very epic film," Jolie said.

As one of the world's most glamorous movie stars, Jolie admits she was not the first choice for director. This is only her second film she's directed.

"So they had to make sure I was prepared to learn and get it right," Jolie said. "I did (doubt myself), but whenever did, I went over to Louie's house, and he made me feel better."

The two lived near each other in Los Angeles, and they had more in common that one might think.

"I had a real professional criminal life as a teenager," Zamperini said.

It turns out this member in good standing of what has been called "the greatest generation" didn't start out that way. So who better than Jolie, a former wild child, to bring his life to the big screen?

"Everybody in this world has doubted themselves at some point," Jolie said. "And everybody has put their energy into the wrong things, and this sort of says you can take all of that, and it's not a bad thing. Just redirect it."

"And it's OK to make mistakes," Jolie added. "And it's OK to be imperfect. Louis was a great man, and he wasn't perfect."

Jolie said that hit especially close to home for her.

"I'm extremely imperfect," she said with a smile.

Those who knew Jolie when she was in her 20's have told me they didn't expect her to live to see 30. When I mentioned that to her, she laughed, and she said she didn't expect to see 30 years of age either, but that was before she became an ambassador to UNICEF and added the title "director" to her resume.