When Angelina Jolie met the Olympian and World War II Louis Zamperini, she knew that she had found her next directing project. And in bringing the extraordinary story of Zamperini to life, the actress turned director knew that she had to find just the right actor to do justice to the role. And in the auditions for Angelina Jolie's Unbroken, the Academy Award winner took an unusual, and a little bit extreme route to find her perfect lead actor.

The Maleficent star had every actor auditioning for the role of Louis Zamperinin locked up in a cell and beaten with a rubber stick. "The auditions were very intense and none more so than the cell. In the cell, the actors would be confined, not knowing if he would be there for three minutes or an hour," the actress shared. "A crew member with a rubber baton would go in at unexpected times and hit the actor. It didn't hurt, but the feeling would bring up the emotion of the loss of freedom, the control, the never knowing, the sense of powerlessness."

Plenty of actors auditioned for Angelina Jolie's Unbroken, and they reacted in quite different ways. But the actress-director was blown away when newcomer Jack O'Connelll came in for his turn. "All of the actors were so brave and many of the auditions were emotional and heartbreaking, and then came Jack," Angelina said. "He went in the cell, he sat in the dark, he didn't force anything, he didn't act. He was just present. He looked around the darkness, he felt the isolation, and he looked so young and vulnerable, and when he was hit, he took the beating, he ended up shaking from the feelings and he allowed his emotions to come forward."

The world premiere for Angelina Jolie's Unbroken will take place Monday night in Sydney, Australia at the State Theatre. The movie's regular screenings is slated for December.