Angelina Jolie

By Sherry Weiner

If you look closely at Angelina Jolie you can see she’s definitely Jon Voigt’s daughter, especially around the huge blue-green eyes. And when it comes to acting ability, it certainly runs in the family. In five short years she has already earned two Golden Globe Awards, one for the performance that made audiences and critics take note in the 1998 HBO biopic Gia where she played the heroin-addicted, lesbian supermodel who died of AIDS and the second for George Wallace.
Jolie lives in New York on the Upper Westside and by her own admission leads anything but a starlet’s life. As evidenced by the roles she’s chosen and the well-nuanced performances she’s already delivered, Jolie is not afraid to take risks.unguarded responses in past press interviews have more often than not gotten her unwanted media attention. She’s talked about everything from sexual knife play to being bisexual to wearing a white blouse to her wedding with her husband-to-be’s (Jonnie Lee Miller) name written on it in her blood. (They’re now divorced). As far as her well-publicized tattoos go, it would take a map and scorecard to keep up with
them. There’s the letter ‘H’ on her left wrist, a Latin inscription, ‘That which nourishes me destroys me’ curving across her stomach, a dragon on her left shoulder, a cross on her hip and a blue rectangle on the small of her back. There may even be a few I’m not privy to. At 24, Jolie is now older and wiser and manages to get through this interview without talking about anything too controversial.
In Phillip Noyce’s police thriller, The Bone Collector, Jolie plays a disillusioned rookie street cop who teams up with a bedridden quadriplegic ex-detective (Denzel Washington) hoping to stop a serial killer who’s on the loose in Manhattan.
Tall but slight in appearance, Jolie has an exotic kind of beauty that’s apparent even though she’s not wearing any makeup. Her large blue-green eyes and pale complexion add a haunting look to a face where her full, sexy lips predominate. It’s apparent she doesn’t try to make herself gorgeous, she can’t help it if it’s in the genes like her overwhelming talent.

UNIVERCITY: This character isn’t easy to figure out. She must have been fascinating to play.
Angelina Jolie: In many ways she was a strong women’s role which they say is hard to find. So many of the women in film are angry or not very feminine. Luckily she was all of that and strong as well. She was a very well-rounded character and had a great arc-she discovered her own strengths and purpose as she went along.

UNIVERCITY: To prepare for the role did you meet with any policewomen?
AJ: I met a lot of them and they were actually stronger than I thought Amelia should be. A lot of the policewomen I met were a lot tougher than the men. They made a decision to be what they needed to be. They were like dead serious. I think they felt the need to keep that authority in order to be respected. I just didn’t think Amelia was like that. She was only on the force a few years. They say when you’re on the force a few years or towards retirement those are the times you’re the most vulnerable and can commit suicide. Many cops do-their gun is right there. People joined the force because they thought they could change the world and then they see that they can’t. You see these trials go on and you don’t have that extra piece of evidence. You know he’s guilty and you see him walk. You’ve spent all this time on the case and you’ve detailed that dead body-and he walks. And every day you see poverty. That’s what happened to Amelia. She’s sickened by people and the world and doesn’t feel she can do anything about it. That’s why she wants to go behind a desk and get off of the streets.

UNIVERCITY: How did Denzel Washington’s physical limitations restrict you in your acting?
AJ: He sent me running around the city. [laughs] When we were in the room together it was actually easy. It was an acting dream. I had new obstacles to react to. I found myself naturally not moving much when I was around him and staying in his eye line. I knew if I moved away then he wouldn’t be able to see me. His bed became an extension of his body. So you didn’t lean on it, you didn’t touch it. You just felt him in the room all the time. It was a very haunting kind of thing.

UNIVERCITY: Why was there a reference that your character was a model in the past?
AJ: I tried desperately to get that out of the script. I was successful in getting some other things out, but not that. I fought them on that for awhile. I insisted that the modeling be in high school or college. Then it ended up being funny because she’s in Catholic school clothes-so it made it that much more outrageous. ‘We have the outtake pictures of that with handcuffs.’ [laughs]

UNIVERCITY: How do you feel about doing sex scenes?
AJ: I think it depends on the film. I wasn’t adverse to it in Gia. I thought it was so much who she was. Her sexuality was freely running down the hallways naked. So I thought it was important and I loved it. I’ve never done below the waist frontal nudity and I don’t think it’s necessary. But I can’t say that I never will. If it was for the film, I’d consider the circumstances. To me, nudity is not this private thing. I’ve never seen myself as some kind of pinup. When I take my clothes off I don’t see it as that shocking or that sexy. But, in this film I didn’t feel it was necessary to show her sexuality at the beginning of the movie. I thought it needed to be about her work. But the filmmakers thought that if they showed that she didn’t enjoy sex, then it would somehow translate to her being with someone who was quadriplegic. I thought none of that needed to get introduced. I thought it was hard enough to introduce me as a female cop. To introduce me naked was unnecessary-and they finally agreed. I wanted to be seen first on the street. So, we compromised. But, the modeling thing, I still don’t understand why they thought that was necessary.

UNIVERCITY: Some of the scenes are really scary and gruesome. Did you ever have to remind yourself that it was just a movie?
AJ: I had to remind myself that I wasn’t actually a cop. One night I was going home and there was an accident on the side of the road. I got out of my car and talked to the person. I started moving traffic and thought, ‘Why aren't they blocking off the crime scene?’ ‘Why aren’t they removing evidence from the other car?’ As for getting scared, I was scared by the reality of it. I went to actual forensic labs here in New York and saw pictures of things that had happened not far away from where I live. Things that happen every day in New York. They were things that were so brutal that I never knew somebody could do to another person. I never saw anyone beaten to death by a tree branch or burnt to death before.

UNIVERCITY: What was that like?
AJ: There was a part of me that was fascinated by all of it. Then, all of a sudden, you see chipped nail polish and you realize that a week ago this woman had a life. You see stretch marks and you realize this woman was beaten to death by her husband who she had children with at some point. You see a mother and daughter burnt to death as they were running together and you can hear their screams. But, then, you go past that and see the blood splattered in a certain way and you want to get the guy that did it and find the evidence. In my character there’s that duality. Half of her is weak and she needs to become a stronger person in order to catch the guy.

UNIVERCITY: Could you ever do that job?
AJ: Never. But I asked a lot of these women officers and they said, you have to remind yourself, ‘It’s not my mother, it’s not my brother’, otherwise you take it home with you. That’s why there are so many suicides on the force. That, plus the feeling of helplessness in finding the killer or seeing him get off. It made me take a very different view of police officers. When we get pulled over to the side of the road by a cop we don’t know what they’ve been through that day.

UNIVERCITY: Did you feel intimidated at the prospect of working with Denzel Washington?
AJ: Very much. Denzel had approval of the actress in the movie. After they showed him my work, he agreed to meet me to see if the chemistry was there. I was so excited he liked my work enough to sit down with me. I also thought he would be perfect for the role. It wasn’t just that he’s a great actor, I could really see him as this man. I don’t think there are many actors that could be that still and have that kind of presence. I never thought about the race issue at all. But it’s a great thing that it’s in there and is not made into an “issue”.

UNIVERCITY: The movie is really an intense love story.
AJ: Completely. It’s strange, in reality, you could have sex with anybody, but there are very few people that can hold me, that I can talk to about my life and can make me cry. There are few people who I’d want to come to and say, ‘Look at what I did.’ So I can have sex with anyone, but there’s hardly anyone to share things with.

UNIVERCITY: So you can have sex with anyone?
AJ: [laughs] I’ve only had a few partners, a handful, in my life. This all changed my view of relationships. Anybody in my life at the time-if I was seeing someone or talking to someone-if they only wanted to be with me for that kind of sexuality-it wasn’t enough. If they weren’t interested in my work and how I was feeling-then it didn’t come close to what I was experiencing at work on the set.

UNIVERCITY: Was it difficult expressing sexual tension on the screen with a paralyzed man?
AJ: I didn’t have any problem at all. In other movies you’d have dinner date scenes and sex scenes. Denzel and I had days of scenes where I’d have to help him move something or show him something or give him some juice. And when we’d talk we’d have to look at each other because he couldn’t grab me and say, ‘Sit here’. He couldn’t hold me and say, ‘I’m sorry.’ So his character was more connected to me sensually. The slightest touch was electric. Both characters were very internal. So the sensuality was easy to convey. It doesn’t hurt that Denzel’s a stunning and intelligent man and a very powerful presence-he is mesmerizing.

UNIVERCITY: Some people will say that you two don’t share a kiss because he’s black and you’re white.
AJ: Where would there be a kiss in the movie? It’s not like there was a scene for it that we avoided. It just wasn’t necessary. I think if there had been enough time in the movie it might have been nice to see what happens in their lives. I think it was just nice that in the end you realize that they’re together by all the subtle things in the script. It’s enough to see her collecting all the Christmas gifts when the guests arrive. It didn’t need to be spelled out more than that.

UNIVERCITY: I understand there was some debate about what type of dress you should wear in that final scene.
AJ: There was a lot of discussion about the dress. They wanted it to be a little, red party dress. I knew Amelia would never wear that. It couldn’t be too bright or too sexy. It also had to match him. If she’s going to be in a relationship with this man-and he’s in a tuxedo-she would have to be wearing something simple and classy. It could never be anything short. Personally, I think long dresses are more elegant. Plus, there was no reason to see her legs and be sexy. I don’t dress like that. The reality of her standing next to him in the wheelchair and having a short, little dress on was ridiculous.

UNIVERCITY: You said a while ago that you didn’t think you would have children. Do you still feel that way?
AJ: I’d have them, I just don’t think I’d give birth to them. There’s a lot of children out there in the world who need homes.

UNIVERCITY: Is your decision at all related to it standing in the way of your career?
AJ: No. I’d love to be a mother. During that interview they were asking me if I was pregnant. Now I feel I have so much and feel complete in many ways. So I’d love nothing more than to be a mother.

UNIVERCITY: Do you have plans to work with your dad?
AJ: We’d love to work together but the right material hasn’t come along. We need to find something that matched each of us well. We haven’t found the story and the characters that speak together perfectly yet.