Hollywood star Angelina Jolie prepares for the shooting of 'A Mighty Heart' in Mumbai, in this November 13, 2006 file photo. [Reuters]

Angelina Jolie has never shied from tough subjects in films, but it could be her upcoming movie about slain journalist Danny Pearl that shows the beautiful actress at her grittiest.

"We didn't want to be too melodramatic or too polished. We didn't want it to be a typical movie," Jolie told Entertainment Weekly magazine in its summer movie preview issue that hits newsstands on Friday.

Jolie, 31, portrays Pearl's wife, Mariane, in "A Mighty Heart," which is set to open on June 22 and is based on Mariane's best-selling novel about her search for her husband after he was kidnapped in Pakistan in 2002.

Pearl was beheaded, and the video of his execution was posted on the Internet, and much of the film shows his wife frantically trying to find and save her husband.

The movie was produced by Brad Pitt, Jolie's companion, and during filming in Pakistan and India last year, the film crew's presence caused a storm of publicity as they were followed by paparazzi.

While shooting in a school in Mumbai, India, Jolie's bodyguards were accused of blocking parents from picking up their kids, although the security officials claimed they were barring celebrity photographers from storming into the school.

"The paparazzi rushed through the gates and caused chaos. It was not the film production that caused chaos. We were only guilty of bringing the paparazzi," Jolie told the entertainment magazine.

"A Mighty Heart" was directed by Britain's Michael Winterbottom, who is known for bringing a sense of reality to films by using hand-held cameras and encouraging actors to improvise.

Jolie said she sometimes clashed with Winterbottom when his filmmaking style became too intrusive.

"Michael and I would have disagreements over where he could follow me. We came up with a system. If I closed the door, he couldn't follow. If I left it open, he could," she said. "I just needed to know that if things got too heavy, there'd be a place for me to cry by myself."