Jolie's tears for her late mother

The Changeling is released in the UK on Wednesday, 26 November

Angelina Jolie has paid a tearful tribute to her late mother, Marcheline Bertrand, and dedicated her performance in new film Changeling to her.

Bertrand, who died in 2007, was the "softest, most gentle woman in the world," she said at a press conference.

Jolie added that her mother "was very much" like her Changeling character, Christine Collins.

The film tells the true story of a woman in 1920s Los Angeles who fights for the truth after her son disappears.

The movie, released in the UK on Wednesday, 26 November and directed by Clint Eastwood, details how the corrupt Los Angeles Police Department reunited Collins with a boy who was not her son.

'Gentle woman'

Jolie, 33, fought back tears as she told journalists in London that her mother had also had "that elegance and strength for knowing what was right".

When it came to her kids, she was really fierce and so this is very much her story

Angelina Jolie on her late mother

"Her name was Marcheline but we used to call her Marshmallow, as a joke, because she was just the softest, most gentle woman in the world," she said.

"She was really sweet and was never angry - she couldn't swear to save her life.

"But when it came to her kids, she was really fierce and so this is very much her story."

The mother of six, who brought her four-month-old twins to London, said she was looking forward to a "big family Christmas" with partner Brad Pitt and the rest of her family.

Jolie said she was looking forward to a "big family Christmas"

She and Pitt were likely to expand their family in the future, she added.

Last week, Jennifer Aniston told US Vogue magazine that Jolie had been "inappropriate" when she revealed details of her romance with Pitt.

She said Jolie should not have told Vogue magazine in 2006 about how her romance had blossomed on the set of action movie Mr & Mrs Smith - while Aniston and Pitt were married.

"There was stuff printed there that was definitely from a time I was unaware it was happening," Aniston told the US magazine's December issue.