Next month, Angelina Jolie will appear side-by-side with her husband Brad Pitt for the first time since they played a murderous spy couple in "Mr. and Mrs. Smith." She wrote, directed and stars in "By the Sea," and according to a new interview with Vogue, it’s her most personal project yet.

“This is the only film I’ve done that is completely based on my own crazy mind... As artists we wanted something that took us out of our comfort zones,” she told Vogue. “Just being raw actors. It’s not the safest idea. But life is short.”

Jolie knows especially how short life can be -- she lost her mother eight years ago, and many of her family members died young from cancer. To avoid a similar fate, Jolie underwent extensive preventative surgeries after learning she had the BRCA1 gene, which predisposed her to breast and ovarian cancers.

She’s gone through menopause as a result, but it hasn’t stopped her from soldiering on in her work. "I had my Monday edit. Tuesday surgery. Wednesday go into menopause. Thursday come back to edit, a little funky with my steps,” she joked to Vogue.

“I feel grounded as a woman. I know others do too,” she said. "Both of the women in my family, my mother and my grandmother started dying in their 40s. I’m 40. I can’t wait to hit 50 and know I made it.”

"By the Sea" hits theaters on Nov. 13. Watch its emotional trailer below.