As Angelina and Brad announce two new films together, we ask whether working with your other half (or indeed your entire family) is ever a good idea?
Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt have announced that they will be working together on not one, but two new movies in the next year. So today we’re asking; Is working with your other half (and in this case your six children under the age of twelve) ever a good idea?
Yes, nine years on since Mr and Mrs Smith, our ultimate woman-itarian (we have no idea how she’s fitting all of this in) has released details on By The Sea, a ‘raw and open’ ‘experimental romance’ that she will write and direct, as well as star in alongside Brad – which kind of makes her his boss, right?
On top of this, she’s confirmed that Brad and all six of their children will be appearing with her in Cleopatra for what is surely the biggest family affair since the Kardashians took over TV.
“We think it’s fun for our kids to have cameos and join us on set, but not to be actors. That’s not our goal for Brad and I at all,” Angelina previously explained of her work-family ethos.
Whether or not ‘celebrity’ children should be in the limelight is, of course, a whole other debate, but this morning we want to know, do you work with your partner or children, how does it work for you and is it successful, or stressful?
Being a ‘24/7 couple’, no doubt, has so many benefits. You get to see each other far more than most other couples, when the business profits, the whole family benefits from the success and if, as in Brad and Ange’s case, the kids come along too, you even get to have total say on how your family is raised. As the ‘difficult’ life of a megastar actor usually entails hauling around the world to remote set locations for months at a time, it certainly makes a lot of sense that the family would want to stick together.
Bringing work problems home and maintaining a healthy work-life balance, are, however, the obvious drawbacks of the situation. Although some people argue that it’s a false distinction to try and separate at-work and at-home life anyway (because even if you don’t work together it’s likely you tell your partner everything that happened in the office) it certainly could be more difficult to switch off together and talk about anything other than your business.
So maybe it’s all about setting ground rules.
Define your roles properly. Who is in charge of what responsibilities -both domestic and business? Everything from the books to the bin bags can be accounted for. And if you have decided that one of you will be directing (literally in Angelina and Brad’s case) the other’s work moves, this relationship needs to be outlined separately from your personal one.
Be honest with each other. You know that one person in the office that doesn’t pull their weight? Imagine if you had to go home and sleep beside that person EVERY SINGLE NIGHT. If something about your ‘colleague’ is bothering you, air the discussion before it boils over into your home life.
Finally, work with other people too. Build a network, do conference calls – anything. Because if you isolate yourself in a Pinterest perfect home office with just your partner forever, that’s a definite recipe for a very real Mr and Mrs Smith-style murder.
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