I plan to cut back on acting at some point in my life as I want to do other things.
I love acting but I will make fewer films in future. You took the role right after giving birth to Vivienne and Knox.
Was it tough to pull yourself away from a mother’s role and into an action one?
Those who have just had children will understand that it’s nice to have an excuse to get out of bed and back in action, what with pregnancy and all. I was doing an action scene on a freeway where my character was being chased and I found myself thinking: “I don’t belong here. I’m somebody’s mom. They got the wrong person”.
Just two weeks earlier I was at home feeding the babies.
Did they get to join you on the set?
I was lucky to work five days a week. I spent time with them during breakfast and dinner. They also joined me for lunch. When I work, they spend more time with their father. Brad is such a great dad. However, I am home with them most of the time.
I only work between eight and 14 weeks a year.
Are they excited about what mommy is doing?
They see me do a cartwheel and think that’s extraordinary! I can’t be more cool — to them I am just mommy. When they’re on set and see me doing stunts, they understand how complicated the film-making process is.
Did you allow stunt co-coordinator Simon Crane (whom Jolie has worked with in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and Mr & Mrs Smith) to push you around?
I call him Dr Crane. He was always saying “suffer...be ready to suffer”.
He knows I love heights so there were lots of action sequences involving heights.
He also kept pushing me where the fights scenes were concerned.
Where does your fearlessness come from? Were you always the kid who jumped off anything?
I was and now I have those fearless kids — Pax and Shiloh.
How do you find action adventure in real life?
I fly planes, ride bikes with Brad and travel to uncharted territories. But the greatest adventure of all is having children. Our kids are very much a part of everything we do.
Did you always have strong role models in your life?
I had a very strong mother. (Jolie’s mother was the late actress Marcheline Bertrand who died in 2007). She always called herself Marshmallow. She was the softest person in the world and could never yell at me without laughing. She was the kindest and most loving person I had ever known in my life and her faith and integrity were so strong they were unbreakable. I now live with three very strong women — my daughters Zahara, Shiloh and Vivienne.
What was it like losing your mother?
It will never heal. Somebody said to me recently ‘you will never get over it and you will never want to.’
The role of Salt was originally written for a male actor. Does this mean gender roles don’t apply in Hollywood anymore?
It will always matter. I’ve played lots of strong female characters but they were often set in some kind of fantasy world so my experience may differ from other actresses.
Which historical figure would you want to play?
I think it’s already been made known — Cleopatra. She was misunderstood and her life story was written wrongly. I always thought her life was very glamorous.
Then I read her story and learnt a different side to her — that she was a mother, leader and an intellect who spoke five languages! Her upbringing also reflected her relationship with Rome — all that is much more interesting than what she was summed up to be.
Would you play it differently than the version portrayed by Elizabeth Taylor?
Yes, but I could never be as lovely as she was. We are trying to uncover the truth about her as a leader and not just a sex symbol which she really wasn’t — she didn’t have many lovers, may be only two and they’re men she had children with.
How much creative control did you have over your character (rumour has it that Tom Cruise was originally approached to play the part)?
We all worked together — the writers and actors. Everybody had an opinion. I had my own views about the character but I didn’t decide on anything that other people didn’t agree. The last time you worked with Noyce was 11 years ago.
Do you think the girl in The Bone Collector knew what she was doing compared to the one in Salt?
I don’t know. I have to watch that movie again and I will tell you (laughs). I only play characters I can identify with. Maybe you can compare the two characters and see a similarity. In The Bone Collector, I play a rookie cop who’s way out of her depth in solving murder cases. In Salt, I play a tough agent who knows who she is and what she is doing.
How difficult is it to internalise deep characters and then switch back to being a mommy?
I am not one of those actors who has to walk around in character all the time. If the subject matter is dark, I tend to giggle a lot — it’s like an emotional release.
You mentioned that shooting the interrogation scene with Polish actor Daniel Olbrychski (as the defected Russian spy Vassily Orlov) was tough because he stayed in character even when the camera stopped rolling.
After a heavy scene like that, most of us just got up and walked away. I like to switch off and be myself again. But for that particular scene, I had to stay in character even during breaks. We talked about the scene and our characters and Daniel was just beautifully “heavy” and “deep”. To some extent I think the experience helped develop my character. It’s nice to stay in character sometimes, but I can’t do it every time.
In an interview, you mentioned that Shiloh is trying to find her identity, just like you did when you were growing up.How would you prevent your daughter from experiencing the dark period you went through?
Most people find their teenage years and early adulthood difficult because they don’t know where they fit in and how useful they can be to the world. They are plagued with questions and they feel that the world doesn’t given them much answers.
I adapted when I got older and started to travel. I visited places where people were suffering and learnt so much from the experiences. Most importantly, I felt ashamed of being sad because I was actually very fortunate. The more I travel, the more excited I am about life and its possibilities. I hope to raise my children in such a way so that they are exposed to many of life’s experiences.
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