Angelina Jolie tones down some of her sexuality to play the action hero role, did all her own stunts while filming Salt and nearly ended up in hospital.

ANGELINA JOLIE got a kick out of doing the stunts for new film Salt – even though she nearly ended up in hospital.

The adrenaline junkie star performed tricks including jumping from a motorway bridge on to a speeding truck and diving from a helicopter as agent Evelyn Salt.

But she was left scarred and needing medical treatment when she was told to burst through a door, roll over the ground and fire a gun.

Angelina, 35, says: “It was first thing in the morning and I thought ‘This is a piece of cake.’ So I jumped inside, rolled over and smashed into a ledge.

“I got this gash between my eyebrows, just under an inch long.

“The nurse put gauze on but I was pretty dizzy and everyone was getting paranoid about it. I was feeling nauseous too and I had trouble walking for a few seconds.

“I had all these weird signs of a concussion so they sent me for an MRI scan. That was all clear so they put some of those tiny stitches over it and bandaged me up. I went back to work later that same day.

“Towards the end of the film my character has so much blood and cuts, it blended in – just one more thing on my face. And it’s left a tiny scar.

“You pick up scars on your body over the years and I don’t mind them. It’s character and it’s part of life.” Angelina’s CIA character goes on the run after being accused of being a spy. The action thriller was originally for a male star but Angelina turned it on its head as a female super-spy.

“In so many spy films, women are femmes fatales,” she says. “We wanted to avoid that. My character doesn’t use her sexuality to get anything. It’s the roughest I’ve looked. When we fight it gets ugly. Somebody breaks my nose. She kicks, she uses her elbows, she fights to survive.”

But Angelina reckons she can get carried away, putting herself at risk.

She says: “Doing a few stunts is a great part of the job – it’s wonderful therapy. I wasn’t scared.

“But I am fearless to the point of stupidity sometimes. Maybe I should have a bit more fear.”

The beauty is one half of Hollywood’s premier power couple with partner Brad Pitt, 46. But she admits she has to work at keeping the relationship fresh.

After winning a case against a newspaper which said their relationship was on the rocks, Angelina stresses how happy they are.

“We schedule date nights,” she laughs. “You have to with children.

“We’ll ask a babysitter to spend the night so we can go out but sometimes we just go to another part of the house. I feel fortunate to have a relationship where I feel safe enough to imagine growing old together.”

The couple’s six kids – adopted Maddox, nine, Pax, six, and Zahara, five, and their biological children, two-year-old twins Knox and Vivienne and daughter Shiloh, four – have also been in the headlines, thanks to Shiloh’s fondness for dressing like a boy.

But Angelina insists she is just letting her girl be herself.

“It’s not my choice,” she says. “I have a very strong-willed four-year-old who tells me what she wants to be and I let her. I think kids should express themselves.”

And it’s clear that the couple are devoted to their kids.

Brad was supposed to have a small role in Salt but it never happened.

“He was watching the kids that day and that’s always more important,” says Angelina. “They take priority.”

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Angelina Jolie talks about new movie CIA action thriller 'Salt'

She's not very big, no bulging biceps, and she does not have a demonic look in her eyes as some on Team Jennifer might want you to believe.

Sitting with Jolie in a suite at the Georgetown Ritz-Carlton, in Washington, D.C., the only thing that would lead you to think that you were not interviewing an up-and-coming businesswoman or a Ferragamo-clad suburban mom would be the no-nonsense muscle standing by the door.

Jolie was in Washington two weekends ago to promote her new action thriller, "Salt" (opening Friday), and it's a testament to how much the film means to her and Sony Pictures (possible franchise?) that the normally press-shy actress did roundtable interviews (no blood oath necessary) and select one-on-ones. She should talk more often - far from being some moody weirdo, Jolie was affable and engaged, funny and smart.

While reporters were asked to keep personal questions to a minimum (translation: Don't ask about her life partner, actor Brad Pitt , their kids or Pitt's ex-wife Jennifer Aniston or we'll toss you into the Potomac), Jolie was happy to volunteer that she's on mommy duty "because Brad is working" and that the previous night she'd stayed back at the hotel playing with Play-Doh with two of her girls. Regarding all the nonsense written about her, she shrugged.

"I pay no attention to it," she said. "I go straight to news when I'm online and don't go to the grocery store."

As for "Salt," Jolie says that it's Hollywood's first attempt to place a female action hero in a real-world setting - less Lara Croft, more Jason Bourne.

Veteran producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura ("Transformers") said of the actress that "nobody else has the thing that she has. I can't think of anyone else who could make this [movie] on this scale."

Jolie plays CIA agent Evelyn Salt, who's accused of being a Russian mole, and the movie's twisty plot - is she or isn't she? - takes her on a series of chases and through a variety of teeth-rattling fight scenes that are a testament to her charisma, conditioning and the stunt coordination of Simon Crane, who's been working with Jolie for a decade.

"He's really a genius," she said of Crane, stressing how much time he put into devising fight scenes that would make her look able to beat up men 100 pounds heavier.

"She's faster, quicker, she can jump on things," Jolie said. "Everything had to be possible."

It could be crazy, she added with a smile, "but not impossible."

Two other facets of the film that Jolie felt strongly about were that it had to be realistic (within its Hollywood summer- popcorn-movie context) and, although the script had originally been written for Tom Cruise, she didn't want it turned into "a girl movie."

Although Jolie's big, pouty lips and intense eyes could probably broker Mideast peace, Salt wouldn't use sex appeal to disarm men, a la Mata Hari. "She's better than that," Jolie said.

In fact, she added, they made the script darker and meaner.

Another change was that Salt's child, who was a part of the movie when the spy was a man, was taken out when Salt became a woman.

"I just thought that a woman in that position would not have a child," she said. "The child would cling and the audience would become fixated on her going back for the child."

Jolie said that what intrigued her about Salt was the duplicity of her secret agent's character. "I liked that she was neither a good guy or a bad guy," she said.

She also liked learning about real-life spies - she does travel to enough global hot spots to be one. Jolie worked closely with former CIA agent Melissa Mahle, who served as a consultant on the film, and the actress said, "I spent a lot of time with people of Russia House. The thing I found most interesting was how isolated and lonely they felt about not being able to talk about their life and work with their families."

As for shooting on location in the nation's capital, Jolie said that it was exhilarating. "You feel the power of things that get done," she said, "and the frustration of things that don't get done."

"Salt" director Phillip Noyce ("Dead Calm," "Patriot Games," "A Clear and Present Danger") worked with Jolie 10 years ago on "The Bone Collector" and said that her transformation has been incredible.

"Then she was an accomplished actress but was still finding herself," he said. "She was a wallflower when she came to my house for a barbecue. Now she has things to teach me, especially in the area of stunts.

"And success has given her even more fearlessness."

Jolie's co-star Liev Schreiber ("The Manchurian Candidate"), however, did have a little fear.

"I met her years ago at Sundance," Schreiber said. "But I get nervous around famous people and beautiful women, so this was like a double whammy for me."

Schreiber said that the pair bonded over kids (Schreiber has two sons under age 3), teething and timeouts, and all the sexual tension went out of the room.

Schreiber was also able to help Jolie in a scene in which she disguises herself as a male military officer. Both he and co-star Chiwetel Ejiofor have cross-dressed in movies.

"Every lead in this movie has cross-dressed," Jolie said, laughing.

The actress thought that she was quite suave as a man but said that the cast couldn't talk with her when she put on her man-wig and uniform.

It was on that day of shooting that Brad Pitt decided to visit the set. Jolie told him that she was going to look like a man but she said that Pitt told her, "It won't bother me, it's you."

"Brad came in and I was half-woman, half man," she said, "and he was really creeped out."

So, does Jolie see herself kicking butt in 20 to 30 years when she's the age of male action stars Bruce Willis , Sylvester Stallone and Harrison Ford?

"No," she said, laughing, "I'll be playing with the grandkids."

When it's her next turn to work, Jolie is fascinated about the possibility of playing Cleopatra, but there isn't a script yet.

No hurries. The once-wild child has grown up, she's more grounded and more comfortable in her own skin - a mother first.

"I've had such a wonderful career," she said, "I don't need to make another movie."






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Angelina Jolie dares to display her figure for first time since birth of twins

Angelina Jolie proves she's still one of Hollywood's sexiest women in her latest film, Salt.

The actress peels off to just her lingerie in the upcoming action movie for the first time since she gave birth to twins Knox and Vivienne, now 16 months.

The revealing scenes show Jolie has managed to regain her flat stomach after the pregnancy.

Scroll down to watch the trailer...

In good shape: Angelina Jolie shows off her bare midriff in a black lingerie set during a scene from the new Salt trailer

Blonde bombshell: Angelina becomes a blonde for her lingerie scene

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Pre-baby body: Angelina showed off her taut physique in Tomb Raider: The Cradle Of Life in 2003

Jolie filmed Salt just six months after giving birth to the twins so it's an impressive feat that she managed to get her figure back in time for the sexy scenes.

In the new trailer for the forthcoming film, which was released online this week, Jolie's character is briefly seen in her underwear.

With her head out of camera shot, the 34-year-old walks towards a bed wearing an open dressing gown which reveals her black bra and knickers.

Despite allegations she may have hired a body double, the lingerie-clad figure is recognisable as Jolie due to the tattoos on her waistline.

The new film stars Jolie as a CIA agent Evelyn Salt who is forced to go on the run after she is accused of being a Russian sleeper spy.

Angelina spent several months filming in New York and Washington D.C. earlier this spring, meaning she had to leave partner Brad Pitt in charge of their six children, including the then-six-month-old twins Knox and Vivienne.

The Oscar winner is always very careful not to be photographed in her bikini on holiday and was last seen flaunting her stomach in promotional pictures for Tomb Raider: The Cradle Of Life six years ago.

Fight for freedom: Evelyn attacks a police officer when she is handcuffed and arrested

Violence: Evelyn fires a gun in the moving car

But after giving birth via caesarean sections to biological children Shiloh in 2006 and the twins last year, Angelina could be forgiven if her stomach wasn't quite as taut as it used to be.

When asked for her tips on losing her post-baby weight last year, Angelina admitted breastfeeding and running after her four eldest children had helped her shift the weight.

The new trailer for Salt shows Angelina's character Evelyn fleeing a CIA building after being told by a defector that she is a Russian spy who is plotting to assassinate the U.S. President.

Interrogation: The trailer sees Jolie's character Evelyn Salt questioning a Russian before he turns the tables on her

She goes on the run while trying to prove herself as an American patriot and keep her husband safe from authorities.

She dyes her hair from blonde to brown and is seen risking her life to avoid capture during death-defying stunts.

The film was originally due to star Tom Cruise as agent Edwin A Salt, but was rewritten for a female lead when Jolie signed on.

Salt is due for release in the UK in August 2010.

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