Angelina and Brad reveal truths about their married life

In a new film By The Sea, which Jolie also directed, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt today gave a rare joint interview, and have opened up about playing a couple going through a difficult time in their marriage. Thankfully, the duo reported, the scenes portrayed are not being played out in the Jolie-Pitt house.

"I'm counting on the audience to know that if it was close to us at all, we could never make this film," Jolie told Tom Brokaw for the Today show, set to air later today. "It's because we're actually very, very stable and these aren't our issues."

The couple have experienced difficulties relating to health rather than marriage in recent years - with Jolie electing to have a double mastectomy two years ago after testing positive for the BRACA1 gene mutation that put her in a high-risk category for breast cancer.

The actress and director lost her mother, grandmother and aunt to the disease, and spoke candidly about the decision to also have her ovaries removed in March of this year, to further ensure that she is protected from the illness.

"I knew through the surgeries that he was on my side and that this wasn't something where I was going to feel less of a woman, because my husband wasn't going to let that happen," Jolie said of Pitt, adding:  "You have to just make the choices you make in life. I made the choices I made because I believed they were right for me."

Pitt echoed her sentiments and lauded her bravery, asserting: "Whatever's got to be done to keep the family together, and keep the family together as long as possible, is going to be done. This was her charge, no question. It's a scary decision. There are many things that can go wrong and go many different directions."

But the couple's revelations weren't all serious - they also shared the one thing that multi-talented Jolie keeps meaning to do, but never quite gets around to.

"Every three months I say, 'Honey, you know, I think I should learn how to cook.' Don't I?" Jolie smiled, to which Pitt replied. "Yes, and I just humour it, but really she has no business being in the kitchen."