Angelina Jolie Q&A

01 October 2008

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Angelina Jolie makes a sensational return to the action thriller genre in Timur Bekmambetov�s Wanted. Jolie plays Fox, a heavily tattooed, deadly assassin who has to train a new recruit to the shadowy organisation known as The Fraternity.

Jolie joins a stellar cast including James McAvoy, Morgan Freeman and Thomas Kretschmann the ground-breaking screen version based on Mark Millar�s comic books.

Wes Gibson (McAvoy) hates his life with good reason. He�s working as a lowly accountant in a dead end job and his best friend is sleeping with his girlfriend. And what�s worse, he doesn�t care. He has no money and no prospects and he�s suffering panic attacks when his bully of a boss shouts at him. And then it all changes.

Reluctantly, Wes is dragged into the inner sanctum of The Fraternity, led by the enigmatic Sloan (Freeman) an organisation that targets criminals and assassinates them for the greater good.

The daughter of French actress Marcheline Betrand and Oscar winning actor Jon Voight, Jolie, 33, first started acting as a child and later studied at the Lee Strasberg Institute in New York and at New York University.

She won international recognition in the mid 1990s with films including Hackers and Foxfire. She earned both Golden Globe and Emmy nominations for her role in the made-for-TV movie George Wallace and again for her remarkable performance as drug addicted model in Gia. In 1999 she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in Girl, Interrupted.

There�s a key scene in Wanted where the killer is chasing you and James� character and you are hanging out of a car firing back at him. It looks incredible and frankly, highly dangerous. What was that like to film?

Oh good (laughs)! We did a little bit of everything. So I am actually driving for some of the time and I am actually on the hood for a big chunk of the time. We did some in the studio when I�m on the hood, and that was mostly for close ups of like heels on necks (laughs) and then most of it was on the streets of Chicago. It was fun, actually.

Do you like doing those kinds of risky stunts?

I do, yes. It�s an adrenaline rush and it�s fun. I mean, it�s very much in our family. Brad and I met doing that kind of thing - we met on Mr and Mrs Smith. And we have that in common so it�s kind of what we shared before we met - with him doing those films and me doing those films so we have a good healthy competition in the house for craziness and things like that.

It�s a very physical role in Wanted. Did that involve a lot of gym time for you?

Yes, a lot of gym and then each stunt requires it�s own preparation. With the car there�s nothing you can kind of train for you know, for flipping around the car. But you do have to get on it and off it and hold the guns and figure out the choreography and practice it all.

It involves so many different guns and leaning over the side of the car and the big stunt with the bus. So you kind of break it down into component parts. And then there is a physical fight that James and I have which took a lot of planning. I do get to kick his ass, though! (laughs) It�s always fun.

You�ve done action films before but this was James� first time. Was he was well prepared for the stunts?

More Angelina Jolie QA on page 2