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| Angelina Jolie: Hollywood won't be the same without her | Angelina Jolie: Hollywood won't be the same without her |
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| She is the Sophia Loren of our age, a Hollywood star of hyperreal beauty, statuesque presence and queenly hauteur. She had been away from the screen for a few years, facing down a bit of snarkery for her UN ambassador work and the alleged trouser-wearing prerogative in her relationship with Brad Pitt. But she stunned everyone with her courage and candour in announcing pre-emptive surgery to combat a genetic predisposition to breast cancer. Then this month Angelina Jolie made that sensational return with the new Disney fantasy Maleficent – smacking those uppity X-Men down to second place at the US box office, and showing beguiling new touches of humour and self-awareness that made her more of an icon than ever. Yet now, at very the moment of her comeback triumph, she hints that after one more film, a Cleopatra biopic, her acting career might be all over, and she's concentrating on being a director and UN ambassador. It's the Queen of the Nile – and then that's it. Oh Ange! Oh no! Say it ain't so! | She is the Sophia Loren of our age, a Hollywood star of hyperreal beauty, statuesque presence and queenly hauteur. She had been away from the screen for a few years, facing down a bit of snarkery for her UN ambassador work and the alleged trouser-wearing prerogative in her relationship with Brad Pitt. But she stunned everyone with her courage and candour in announcing pre-emptive surgery to combat a genetic predisposition to breast cancer. Then this month Angelina Jolie made that sensational return with the new Disney fantasy Maleficent – smacking those uppity X-Men down to second place at the US box office, and showing beguiling new touches of humour and self-awareness that made her more of an icon than ever. Yet now, at very the moment of her comeback triumph, she hints that after one more film, a Cleopatra biopic, her acting career might be all over, and she's concentrating on being a director and UN ambassador. It's the Queen of the Nile – and then that's it. Oh Ange! Oh no! Say it ain't so! |
| Jolie has been an A-list movie star for a good 15 years, although it's true to say her last couple of movie credits haven't met with great acclaim. In 2010, in The Tourist, she played a woman of mystery in a supposedly glamorous caper set in Venice, co-starring Johnny Depp; it looked in danger of sinking into the lagoon. Another movie was Wanted in 2008 – an aggressive boys-own action picture with unlovely touches of misogyny. But I very much enjoyed her spy thriller Salt in which she played secret agent Evelyn Salt – a role originally conceived for Tom Cruise. I see that Salt 2 is scheduled for production. It won't be the same without Jolie. | Jolie has been an A-list movie star for a good 15 years, although it's true to say her last couple of movie credits haven't met with great acclaim. In 2010, in The Tourist, she played a woman of mystery in a supposedly glamorous caper set in Venice, co-starring Johnny Depp; it looked in danger of sinking into the lagoon. Another movie was Wanted in 2008 – an aggressive boys-own action picture with unlovely touches of misogyny. But I very much enjoyed her spy thriller Salt in which she played secret agent Evelyn Salt – a role originally conceived for Tom Cruise. I see that Salt 2 is scheduled for production. It won't be the same without Jolie. |
| Angelina Jolie made her big breakthrough in 1999 with two terrific performances in pretty good movies. She won a Golden Globe and a best supporting actress Oscar for her turn as the super-cool bad girl Lisa in James Mangold's Girl, Interrupted, the inmate of a psychiatric care facility – whose exuberant defiance inspires her fellow patient Susanna, played by Winona Ryder. That same year she was excellent in Mike Newell's comedy drama Pushing Tin, as the beautiful young wife of an air-traffic controller (Billy Bob Thornton); she has an affair with her husband's colleague, Nick (John Cusack). There is a lovely, relaxed spark between feline-sexy Jolie and goofy-unthreatening Cusack. | Angelina Jolie made her big breakthrough in 1999 with two terrific performances in pretty good movies. She won a Golden Globe and a best supporting actress Oscar for her turn as the super-cool bad girl Lisa in James Mangold's Girl, Interrupted, the inmate of a psychiatric care facility – whose exuberant defiance inspires her fellow patient Susanna, played by Winona Ryder. That same year she was excellent in Mike Newell's comedy drama Pushing Tin, as the beautiful young wife of an air-traffic controller (Billy Bob Thornton); she has an affair with her husband's colleague, Nick (John Cusack). There is a lovely, relaxed spark between feline-sexy Jolie and goofy-unthreatening Cusack. |
| As her career began, the resulting movies were a mixed bag. She was inspired casting as Lara Croft, the action heroine whose screen career pre-dated the modern predominance of superheroes and Marvel studios. If Angelina Jolie were starting out now, she would almost certainly have to don the lycra in some way – and probably find herself playing second fiddle to some superhero male. | As her career began, the resulting movies were a mixed bag. She was inspired casting as Lara Croft, the action heroine whose screen career pre-dated the modern predominance of superheroes and Marvel studios. If Angelina Jolie were starting out now, she would almost certainly have to don the lycra in some way – and probably find herself playing second fiddle to some superhero male. |
| In Oliver Stone's Alexander (2004) she played the imperious and Oedipally sexy mother to the great warrior himself, Alexander the Great, played by Colin Farrell. Farrell looked a little out of his depth next to Jolie, like she might at any moment order him up to his room with no supper. | In Oliver Stone's Alexander (2004) she played the imperious and Oedipally sexy mother to the great warrior himself, Alexander the Great, played by Colin Farrell. Farrell looked a little out of his depth next to Jolie, like she might at any moment order him up to his room with no supper. |
| Then the second breakthrough: Doug Liman's comedy thriller Mr and Mrs Smith in 2005, with Jolie and Brad Pitt each playing professional assassins who learn that their next assignment is to kill each other. It's a movie I didn't like much on first release – but every time I see it on television, its energy and knockabout humour keeps me watching. That much-yearned-for quality of "chemistry" is there. It looked very much as if Jolie and Pitt really did fancy the bejeepers out of each other. They got together in real life; their mutual celebrity went supernova, and the cheeky title "Brangelina" was applied to them, like "Bennifer" to Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez. (Some incidentally claim the couple-combo handle was invented by celeb journalists in the noughties. Not true. It was invented by F Scott Fitzgerald in his 1934 novel Tender Is the Night: the golden couple Dick and Nicole are at one stage called "Dicole".) Mr and Mrs Smith was a key Jolie role: tough, dynamic, sexy, with a tenderness that did not compromise the heroine's muscular heroism. | Then the second breakthrough: Doug Liman's comedy thriller Mr and Mrs Smith in 2005, with Jolie and Brad Pitt each playing professional assassins who learn that their next assignment is to kill each other. It's a movie I didn't like much on first release – but every time I see it on television, its energy and knockabout humour keeps me watching. That much-yearned-for quality of "chemistry" is there. It looked very much as if Jolie and Pitt really did fancy the bejeepers out of each other. They got together in real life; their mutual celebrity went supernova, and the cheeky title "Brangelina" was applied to them, like "Bennifer" to Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez. (Some incidentally claim the couple-combo handle was invented by celeb journalists in the noughties. Not true. It was invented by F Scott Fitzgerald in his 1934 novel Tender Is the Night: the golden couple Dick and Nicole are at one stage called "Dicole".) Mr and Mrs Smith was a key Jolie role: tough, dynamic, sexy, with a tenderness that did not compromise the heroine's muscular heroism. |
| Jolie won some respect for her performance in Michael Winterbottom's true-life movie A Mighty Heart in 2007, playing Mariane Pearl, wife of the kidnapped journalist Daniel Pearl. She did a terrific job as Grendel's gigantic mother in Robert Zemeckis's Beowulf and was nominated for a best actress Oscar as the doughty mom in Clint Eastwood's drama Changeling in 2008. | |
| It could be that Jolie herself regarded that as the natural break, and from that point she has been foreseeing a post-acting career. Certainly, her feature-film directing debut in 2011, a Bosnian war drama called In the Land of Blood and Honey, was respectfully received. Jolie wrote the screenplay too and defied the doubters with a film that my colleague Andrew Pulver found "sombre, powerful, and undeniably gripping". | It could be that Jolie herself regarded that as the natural break, and from that point she has been foreseeing a post-acting career. Certainly, her feature-film directing debut in 2011, a Bosnian war drama called In the Land of Blood and Honey, was respectfully received. Jolie wrote the screenplay too and defied the doubters with a film that my colleague Andrew Pulver found "sombre, powerful, and undeniably gripping". |
| So how about that Cleopatra movie? Jolie is the only possible star for this role. And as for who gets to play Mark Antony, my hunch is that our very own Dominic West will climb into the Roman tunic and Ralph Fiennes will play Cleo's former lover Julius Caesar. I'm already looking forward to seeing Jolie making that triumphal entry into Rome. But will Jolie really leave it there? Surely she can intersperse her directing projects with juicy acting roles. A whole new vista of drama and comedy, not to mention romance, is opening up for her in her 40s. This is her time! | So how about that Cleopatra movie? Jolie is the only possible star for this role. And as for who gets to play Mark Antony, my hunch is that our very own Dominic West will climb into the Roman tunic and Ralph Fiennes will play Cleo's former lover Julius Caesar. I'm already looking forward to seeing Jolie making that triumphal entry into Rome. But will Jolie really leave it there? Surely she can intersperse her directing projects with juicy acting roles. A whole new vista of drama and comedy, not to mention romance, is opening up for her in her 40s. This is her time! |
| More on Angelina Jolie | More on Angelina Jolie |
| • Video: Angelina Jolie on Maleficent: 'I was drawn to the evil' • Angelina Jolie hints at acting retirement after Cleopatra biopic• Angelina Jolie springs back to life from a career slumber in Maleficent• Peter Bradshaw reviews Maleficent• Angelina Jolie: five best moments | • Video: Angelina Jolie on Maleficent: 'I was drawn to the evil' • Angelina Jolie hints at acting retirement after Cleopatra biopic• Angelina Jolie springs back to life from a career slumber in Maleficent• Peter Bradshaw reviews Maleficent• Angelina Jolie: five best moments |