Angelina Jolie talks about ‘Wanted’, which is out on DVD this weekend.
There is a line in ‘Wanted’ that goes, “Some day a girl is going to come along and change your world forever – you have no idea.” That girl is still Angelina Jolie. Whether you’re talking about Brad Pitt and how being cast alongside Jolie in ‘Mr and Mrs Smith’ tore him away from Jennifer Aniston and transformed him into a super dad or just how Jolie has changed the face of fame in Hollywood – there is no doubting Angelina Jolie is that girl.
Having recently given birth to twins, Angelina juggles being mother to her and Brads four other children, promoting movies and humanitarian work, Jolie shows no sign of slowing down either. At 33 she is still the most photographed, talked about, in demand and powerful of all the Hollywood leading ladies.
‘Wanted’ sees Jolie showing even mothers can still cut it when it comes to action. Her role as assassin Fox sees her back in the kind of trigger-happy form that made her such a hit as Lara Croft.Scot star James McAvoy plays the no-hoper plucked from his humdrum life to realise his potential as a member of a secret breed of killers called the Fraternity charged with keeping the world’s deadliest baddies in check.
Q: Wanted is one of three movies you have out in 2008, you must be looking
forward to some time off?
AJ: “Well it does look like I am always working but I really haven’t been. Kung Fu Panda took about four days. Maddox came to work with me and I did it sitting on the floor with him in his pyjamas. That’s not really work. Even for this movie, I was needed on set less than anyone else so I was lucky. I think it took four months in total to shoot this and Changeling with Clint Eastwood which isn’t much in a year. I’m pretty lucky.”
Q: Why did you want to do a movie like this at this point in your career?
AJ: “I could have gone straight from A Mighty Heart to Changeling but they are two movies about kidnapping, both are real stories and both are heavy emotionally. I had also just lost someone in my family and had a baby. I just knew for my own well being I had to balance it with something that is just out of my head, physical and strong.”
Q: Is it exciting to see yourself in such an action packed role, running around with a gun?
AJ: “Oh I can’t watch myself. I hate it. I can’t even watch the dailies when we’re shooting.”
Q: Do you still find guns sexy?
AJ: “Yeah, but obviously there’s a part of me that takes the world of violence and death very seriously. However, when it comes to protection or when it comes to just the skill of shooting … I’ve gone to the range with sniper rifles and things like that. Brad and I both like it a lot. That is something we have in common.”
Q: Can you explain what Wanted and the Fraternity is about?
AJ: “The idea behind the Fraternity is if you could know in advance any of these bad people in the world who are going to kill people, for example a Hitler, would you take them out. Would you take them out? Basically, that is what the Fraternity does.”
Q: And who do you play?
AJ: She’s an assassin but she believes she kills bad people. She kills with a conscience.”
Q: There is a somewhat supernatural element to this movie.
AJ: “Yeah, there’s this idea of fate – that there is a loom that can tell us who these people are. But a lot of it feels very grounded and is very kind of gritty and raw with the way James enters the Fraternity and has to be trained. It’s very raw – it’s almost crass, it’s so raw.”
Q: Did you read the graphic novel before taking on this project?
AJ: “I did, yeah. We changed my character a lot for the movie. I think in the graphic novel I have little fox ears on top of my head (laughs). We tried to not lose the sense of fun or the wicked humour of the graphic novel but at the same time we wanted to make it a little more real.”
Q: This is James’s first action movie. Was there an element of you mentoring him with you being something of an action expert – a bit like your character is to his in the movie?
AJ:”There was a degree of irony in the fact I have done a bunch of these movies and he hasn’t but he’s great. He’s surprisingly very physical as an athlete and when it comes to stunts. I didn’t know he was going to be able to be like that. I was like, I don’t know how they are going to turn him into this action hero because kind of by the end of the movie he’s kind of sexy and cool… But he has got that in him. You look at him as this sweet fun guy which he is but he’s also from Scotland and that’s a tough place.”
Q: Your last action movie was Mr and Mrs Smith. How does James compare with Brad?
AJ: “Well, you know, I’ll always prefer rolling around on the floor with Brad than any other man (laughs). You know, in general.”
Q: Have you thought about returning to work after maternity leave? Do you feel like there are still roles out there that you are desperate to do? I
know Atlas Shrugged is one you have been linked to.
AJ: “Yeah that’s definitely one of those once-in-a-lifetime roles that you think if I only do a few more movies in my lifetime, that has to be one of them but as I say being a mother is the most important thing in my life now.”
‘WANTED’ is out on DVD in Ireland from October 17th
We’ll have copies of the DVD to win, keep an eye on Movies.ie