 Angelina Jolie |
But while they may have launched a zillion rhapsodic adjectives on newsstands and the blogosphere when she first arrived so bee-stung on the scene, today it’s the words coming forth from that famous mouth that catch everyone’s attention. With an Oscar on the mantle, an adorable multicultural clan at home, an equally famous, gorgeous and talented paramour on her arm and hundreds of hours of humanitarian efforts to her credit, Jolie stands firmly at the epicenter of the popular culture.
So it’s no wonder Hollywood.com spent the better part of a weekend in L.A. listening to the superstar hold court on a wide range of subjects, from being three months pregnant in her unexpectedly exposed scenes in Robert Zemeckis’s computer-animated fantasy Beowulf to the enduring emotional effects of playing journalist Mariane Pearl in the tragic true-life tale A Mighty Heart (a performance which, thanks to a new audience on DVD, is making her Oscar buzz grow louder by the second) to bringing her roles home to Brad Pitt and the kids.
Question: How did you end up playing this shape-changing seductress from history’s oldest known story?
Angelina Jolie: I was excited I got a call that I was going to be working with Bob Zemeckis, and I was pretty much saying yes to anything. Then I was told I was going to be a lizard. [Laughs] Then I was brought into a room with Bob and a bunch of pictures and examples, and he showed me this picture of a woman half-painted gold, and then a lizard. And, I’ve got kids and I thought “That's great. That's so bizarre. I'm going to be this crazy reptilian person and creature.” I was very excited. And then I met with Crispin [Glover, who plays Grendel] and we had a great time, and just amazing scenes. And then I saw the poster--and saw a few other things--and I realized I'm not just a lizard. [Laughs] But I'm very excited about it. It was just great. She's one of those fun characters. She's evil and she's temptation and she's very fun to play.
 Beowulf Movie Still |
AJ: I think that the nice thing about it was that we all do films these days, and so much of it has become a business, and so much of it is these projects where people want to rush through things, or you feel like you make a movie and you're not really sure. You’ve kind of lost touch with the artistic process and the fun of it. And Bob is a real artist, and he loves it so much. He's so enthusiastic, and so original, and you really feel that you remember you're a creative person, and you have fun with everybody else. I needed that, as an artist, so it was really great. I'm really grateful for the experience.
Q: And despite being featured so prominently in the film, it wasn’t exactly a demanding shooting schedule.
AJ: This was a two-and-a-half day shoot for me, and I was three months pregnant! We did the mapping of my body before. But no, it was a pleasure. But yes, the fact that it was short, it was that much easier to not have to work too much.
Q: What did it feel like to see so much of yourself appearing on screen, particularly the nudity?
AJ: I got a little shy [Laughs]. I didn't expect ourselves to come out as much. I didn’t expect it to feel as real. Because, especially with the type of character I play, it was kind of funny at first. There were certain moments where I felt actually shy, and called home [laughs], just to explain that the fun movie that I had done, that was this digital animation, was in fact a little different [laughs] than they were expecting. I was really surprised that I felt that exposed.
Q: Did you like how your body ended up looking?
AJ: I love my tail. [Laughs]
Q: What was the oddest thing you had to do when you were covered with sensors trying to act out the scene without sets, props, costumes or anything?
AJ: Bob will make you do weird things. For swimming, we had to figure out something I could be attached to. My waist was attached, I was attached to something. I had a harness, but it was on something with wheels. It was bizarre. It was day one, and I had to suddenly swim, and we were trying to figure out what that would be, in this new way. So I was swimming with my upper body, being rolled around Crispin, and trying to pretend I was swimming. Same with the flying. We hooked me up with wires and flew around. I had something where I flew around [Crispin] for a bit.
Q: Now that you’ve stepped into this new world of animation, would you consider another project like this in future?
AJ: I would certainly love to do more. I wouldn't call this animation, because we were physically doing all of these things. And every single gesture is ours. Everything is acted out exactly by us--even where our eyeballs move, because this is a new thing, were exactly where we looked. They were mapped exactly. It is our performances, and we had these scenes together. So, I do think that is important to state, because it's exciting that it's not and it's different.
 Beowulf Movie Still |
AJ: Yes, I had read it years and years ago, and I hardly remembered it. It's one of those great stories that you know the themes of it. You take away the themes and you never forget. But, when I read the script, it wasn't fresh enough in my mind to compare it, and it wouldn't be at this moment, even.
Q: Were there stories from your youth that had a significant effect on you?
AJ: I'm sitting here trying to think of some brilliant answer, but I really don't have one. I loved Treasure Island. When it comes to film, I love Lawrence of Arabia. I loved The Traveler. I loved reading Winston Churchill's works. I love his stories of his early life and his adventures, and the history in that. So those are mine.
‘A Mighty Heart’ Keeps Beating
Q: Now that more and more people are seeing the film on DVD, what kind of reaction have you been getting?
AJ: The only reaction I was ever waiting for was Mariane's [Pearl]. Then of course Ruth and Judea's [Pearl], and I heard that she'd seen the movie and it was about a week before I'd heard from her. I got really nervous and I got the most beautiful and giving email. It was just so kind and considerate of everyone else. That's just her nature. So ever since she felt okay with it then nothing else has affected me that much. Certainly any time that anyone said they appreciated the movie I just hoped that they appreciated her. She's just extraordinary and I got really lucky to be able to play her. She really, really is amazing.
 A Mighty Heart Movie Still |
AJ: Yeah, certainly. I think the most difficult thing in this was that we had Mariane who was so supportive, but she was also never on set and was going around the world doing stories about other women and she's a great journalist. She did come in the night before I started it and she brought Adam and the kids were playing and we all share the same feeling. We all thought and looked at him and realized that one day he was going to look at this film and if we do it right we could show him how much his mommy loved his daddy and who his parents are. So it was a huge responsibility, but also there's no better reason to do something.
Q: Unlike Beowulf, you weren’t actually pregnant in real life when you made this, though you play pregnant in the film.
AJ: No. I was pregnant three months before shooting this, and so I had a memory.
Q: What's easier--a prosthetic pregnancy or a real one?
AJ: [Laughs] Well, one of them you can unsnap every night.
Q: How long did you spend in preparing for this role and working with Mariane before filming began?
AJ: I knew Mariane a little bit because we had met, by chance. We were both single moms doing a lot of things internationally. So she sent me a note one day and I sent her one back and it was totally unrelated to the film, and then the film later came about and I took it to Brad…She knew him and we all knew each other. It became this natural thing that seemed to happen. So it was strange that I was suddenly then meeting her for dinner and trying to watch her. I felt very bad about it and I felt very strange talking to my friend and studying her accent. So I didn't. I actually got a lot of tapes because she did a lot of interviews during the kidnapping and after and I studied those and took her sound from that. It felt invasive. Her voice changed when Danny died. Her voice changed again when she gave birth and these were just personal things that I felt I was discovering and I felt very shy about it, analyzing her. I never asked her how she reacted the moment he was lost. I still can't. I did ask her just about her past and tried to understand what gave her this strength. I learned a lot about other very traumatic things that happened to her in her past that forged who she is.
 A Mighty Heart |
AJ: I think I found that certainly what they had is that they had a common goal for the world. They had a common goal and not some grand view of changing the world in general, but whether it be raising a family in the same way or whatever, they both had this hunger to learn about other cultures and truths to tell in journalism. They would raise their child the same way, too. So it's a beautiful and very romantic love story and I certainly learned a lot about love through their stories, little things that she did for him and things that he did for her. Hopefully that's what you take away from it. You realize that love, not to be absolutely corny, but if Mariane were here she'd say it, that in the end there is a point. That's why she's such a powerful force because for all purposes she could've become a very angry and hateful person and she's not. She loves Pakistan and she loves people of all countries and loves people of all religions. That is probably the only way we can get through it all.
Q: What do you hope the audience will walk away feeling and thinking?
AJ: At its heart this film, I think, is about how to move through life. I think that's what it was for me. We are at war now and there's much going on in the world of terrorism and there's so much where we talk about a country as “evil.” We imagine an entire country full of people as just evil, and we don't have enough discussions about each others’ cultures, and we don't talk about the heroes of each country, and we don't talk about how we can have dialogue about how much we have in common and our shared goals, and how we can work together. We don't have people going out there and figuring that out as much as we have people going out there and doing other things. But that's what she does. It's saying that she's of course angry about what happened, that this is something she's not passive about – she's a very strong person. But she knows that in order to work towards a world that Adam can grow up in there's got to be resolve in some area. You have to focus past that and try to still communicate with each other. I think that's just important.
Q: Tears come to your eyes when talking about this. It's still very close to you?
AJ: Yeah, absolutely. This story affected all of us at the time it happened and it'll always affect me in a great way.
Off Screen with the Jolie-Pitts
 Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt |
AJ: I've been really lucky in my career where I've gotten to do the craziest and silliest things and I've gotten to do some serious work. I'm going to do some good things in my life, but my career has never been – if I never worked again, tomorrow I'd be home with my family.
Q: How do you find equilibrium between your personal and public lives?
AJ: You just try to balance and try not to work too much, and take turns working. It's not that hard…I try not to think about my public life. I focus on my private life, and that's just the best way to live.
Q: As an actress, do you ever take a character home?
AJ: You don't think you do. I think little things sometimes. Apparently [during A Mighty Heart] I was dressing funny. I was trying to add color [laughs]. I know that I was very attached to my family during that period. There was a lot more affection than normal. I was just very happy to know where everybody was and it's obvious. I just fell in love with my family all over again.
Q: You’ve been busy since making these films, with Wanted and The Changeling. Are you taking time off soon?
AJ: I have one more month on The Changeling, and then I'm not doing anything.
 Angelina Jolie |
AJ: I don't know. We are talking about maybe New Orleans. Brad and I both have some work to do there. We don't know. We're leaving it open still.
Q: The work in New Orleans would be a charitable effort?
AJ: Yes, always. There are many different things. There is a lot of traveling I want to do, and continue to work with this education program we started for refugees, and many things. And I travel when I can.
--Additional reporting by Emily Christianson
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