Angelina Jolie demonstrates her fighting spirit in her latest action role – as an assassin in the film Wanted.
New mum Angelina Jolie is no stranger to action movies. The actress, who has played an assassin in Mr. & Mrs. Smith and fleshed-out the super sexy video game character of Lara Croft in Tomb Raider, returns to the genre with Wanted.
In the film, Jolie plays Fox, a heavily tattooed, deadly assassin who hauls Gibson, played by James McAvoy, out of his ordinary life into the potentially lethal world of crime fighting where The Fraternity identify criminals to execute before they cause mayhem and loss of life.
Filmed on location in Chicago and Prague over four months, Wanted was "huge fun to make" says Jolie. It was a strong test of her physical prowess as she tackled most of the stunt work herself.
What was it like to shoot?
There's a side to me that people know that is a humanitarian, there's a side to me that is a mommy, but I think like all women, there is a side to me that likes to get down and dirty and have fun and jump around. I'd missed that a little and I think it's good for me to do that every once in a while.
That's an important side to keep in touch with. And one day your kids will look at films like Wanted and say ‘hey mom, that was impressive...'
They'll finally think I'm cool. It's like my son [Maddox] will ask me to play a video game and I suck at it. Or there will be some sports thing on the computer. And I'm terrible and Brad's terrible. He wins all the time. We don't even understand it properly. And mom is always the dork who can't even figure out the plugs. But one day they'll see the films and see that mom is not a total dork.
What was James McAvoy like to work with?
He's such a great guy. I think that's why people are going to like the film because it does have all these interesting elements of an action movie but the main character you are watching is James and he really represents every guy with the [bad] job and a girlfriend who is cheating on him and everything about him isn't cool. And then he is brought into this thing, The Fraternity, and we change his life and he becomes one of us.
What about you, when it comes to doing actions scenes? Is that empowering?
Sure. I think it's good for anybody, any woman, man or kid, whoever, to learn a skill when it comes to fight training whether it be kung fu or boxing or kick-boxing, because self defence is important. We want our kids to learn it. They are going to get into a fight some day so they might as well learn how to take care of themselves.
You do some spectacular driving in the film. Do you like to drive?
It's funny, the other day, I didn't have a baby shower, but my girlfriends rented a sports car for me. So Brad and I just drove around all day. It was fantastic. It was a Mercedes with the suicide doors. That was in LA. But in general, at home, because of getting followed and things like that, I don't drive very much at all because I don't like being stressed out and being followed when I have kids in the car. It's a pleasure that's been denied to me. But hopefully in other countries and we're there for a few months ... I would love to rent a car and race around the back roads of France.
Are you a bit of an adrenaline junkie?
Yeah, I think so. I've actually got a pilot's licence and so does Brad. But I didn't want to fly just because of that. I mean, I do love the idea of just being up in the air but I think it's more of the traveller in me. I just want to go to places that are un-mapped still. It's the freedom thing.
