Angelina Jolie ’s spy - fi movie , Salt , was originally supposed to asterisk a man . But after she came aboard , Jolie struggle to keep her theatrical role from turning into a stereotypical femme fatale . We talk to her about break head , MacGyvering and more .
During the round table for the undercover agent plastic film Salt , we sit down with Angelina Jolie , Producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura , and Director Phillip Noyce .
little pamperer ahead .
Can you verbalize a little bit about the research you did for this role and how you used it to inform your eccentric ?
Yes . We spent a lot of clip with dissimilar people who ’d worked in The Russia House and the CIA , and I recollect the bounteous note I train from them was how isolated and lonely they felt not being able to verbalize about their life and their employment with anybody in their family . And what a sacrifice that is , and how it ’s only when they in the end pull away that they find this relief of actually being able to sit around the dinner party board and have real conversations , not have to hide anything and not have to consist about anything . What an strange character of personality that must be . That informed [ me ] a great deal .
How much of this film is base on world ? What is the point of accumulation as far as the activeness scenes ?
A lot of it was our stunt coordinator , Simon Crane , he ’s just a adept . And it was him really trying to figure out , okay , if she ’s give-up the ghost to go up against a guy cable who ’s a foot and a half taller than her and a 100 pounds large than her , how could she actually do it ?
She ’s quicker , she can get top , she can jump on things , or she ’s ready , or she ’s more agile , or whatever it would be . Everything had to be somehow potential , even if it was stretched — even if the trucks on the freeway were baseless . In a stretch , it ’s still not impossible . Crazy , but not impossible . So we seek to always remember that . I think that was our bar – could it be done ? It would have to be an over-the-top soul , but could it be done ? It ’s really the opposite of every military action movie I ’ve ever done , because there ’s never really been a female legal action movie based in reality . They ’re always fantasy . I ’ve done most of ‘ em .
You ’ve played so many unassailable female activeness character reference . And yet , for some reason that idea has never really taken off in Hollywood .
Well I think it ’s down to [ the ] hearing , and you recognise you want to give an consultation something that they … you just wait for them to answer to one . So if you do it right , which we attempt to do , then you ’ve done it . And then hopefully , like most businesses , they recollect if it make money , then somebody else will make money , and then they will make more picture with women in that role , I think , if this one works .
This part was originally written for a man , so what did you want to alter , and what did change about this character ?
Well , I ’m not Edwin . [ That name ] did n’t suit me [ laughs ] . Did n’t have a married woman . The big change … was , we said , “ well we ca n’t go to turn this into a girl motion picture , ” because that ’s where , I think , hoi polloi have failed in the past . When they write something on purpose for a woman , it ’s always about being a adult female — using your muliebrity , all these form of female obvious things . So we read let ’s just keep all the thing about it that are knotty , and it ’s about being what she is , it ’s about the journeying . And if anything , we have to make it darker and we have to make it meaner than the boys .
Is that why they cut the Word or daughter that was written into the original script ?
I just did n’t find that a womanhood would have a child in that stead . And that if a woman had a child , I reckon it would be very hard for us not to conceive of her kind of holding onto that child through the intact moving-picture show . You know , because it would just become all about the child . Which is unknown — but I cogitate audiences would allow a man to have a child and the tike [ could ] be with the married woman back at home . But it would be very , very difficult to see a cleaning woman not be 100 % focussed on her tike .
[ SMALL Spoiler } You mention not being Edwin , but you are a man for a few minutes . [ In the film Angelina piss a quickie camouflage by changing her sex ]
I am . I could n’t help myself .
What was it like to hybridize - full-dress ?
It was great . Oh , it was neat . Well the funny thing is , you realize every booster cable in this movie has track - lop … .So they were very supportive . They gave me tips .
They just essentially sound out , just go fully into it and bask it . That ’s what they did . I loved it . We address him Johnny for some reason . It was really weird ; I found … I think I was a bit suave . People had a very , very difficult fourth dimension talk to me . Philip could hardly talk to me . Nobody could let the cat out of the bag to me . It was n’t as much what he looked like , it was when he spoke . Because when it was my voice coming out of him . And Brad [ Pitt ] add up to visit me once , and I said , “ You do n’t require to arrive , I ’m go to be the adult male . ” And he said , “ it wo n’t bother me , it ’s you , whatever , it ’s you . ” And then he came , and I was changing , and so I was like half woman and half man . So crawl out by it .
It voice like when you came on , you had some stimulus in reinvent your type ? What did you want to tot up in make her as a character ? And did you have an impact on her being pretty fix ?
It was highly of import to me . I just felt that she was just better than that , that she did n’t have to do that . And not that it would n’t have been fun to do if it was appropriate in a picture , but it just felt like if we could discover a way not to need that , get ’s not . There was even talking for a long sentence about adding a tantrum in the end — because if you ’ve seen it , I do n’t end so pretty .
And there was a discussion about , “ Do you kind of fascinate up with her glamorous again ? ” Because this is what people would require , this is what audience would want — and we made a definitive decision of “ No , it ’s very , very important that we do n’t do that to her . ” So we always angle it back into some kind of , trying to make it just harder and more cutting . And I just liked her , I was more interested in a woman like Evelyn than what could have become of her . Which is always the scripts that get sent to me for action females . And I ’ve never want to do that character of woman .
Your fictional character builds dud and rewires systems . Did you pick up any acquisition ?
My MacGyver scene ? … Apparently , we actually take one or two elements out of the bomb - construction so it could n’t be recreated , but yeah . Just so mass know . But with a few additional elements , yeah that ’s one . Yeah , I mean , you do ; you get a line the oddest things when you ’re an thespian . That you do n’t even have it off what , and you come home and your kids say what did you do ? And you ’re like , “ I built a bomb . ” I do n’t bed . But I did , I laughed through that whole vista . I felt like making MacGyver music .
This celluloid seems like it could really invoke to a distaff audience as well as a male one . What do you think about that ?
I hope so . And I think we really tried to do something that we all just think was a keen celluloid , and that I think should appeal to everybody . But I do think it ’s interesting for woman — even the woman on readiness , it was interesting because it was this unexampled thing , and again , it ’s so rum that when we think that it has n’t been done , but it had n’t . It was all the girls that fought for the end to not become pretty . It was all the girls that say do n’t do that , that ’s something you ’re kind of doing on intent for a different audience . So we did , we tried to you know keep both the men and the women . We ’re just very witting of making it for everybody .
What do you think SALT says about women ?
Well I ’ve never underestimated women . So I ’m not surprised to start check women do these things , I just remember it was , and that ’s why we did n’t in reality approach it as , “ Salt ’s a adult female . ” We just approached it as , “ Salt ’s a badass and happens to be a womanhood , ” and this should be no huge surprise for anybody .
Producer, Lorenzo di Bonaventura
As far as finances , yield , everything , was it regard at all risky transfer Edwin to Evelyn and not a video game action hero , but a genuine cleaning woman ?
I recall the biggest endangerment in making this movie was we played with the audience ’s tie with the lead fictional character . You know , I ’ve been involved in 150 - plus movies in different signifier and ways , and [ in ] every individual one of those , we did one thing the same , which was check that you like that booster cable theatrical role , check that you root for them . And this is the only time where I ’ve been involve in a moving picture where you purposefully affect how the audience is feel all the way through , and we ’ve been successful in it because I ’ve lecture to people after the motion-picture show and there are some multitude that feel really ambivalent about her at the end of the flick , but they still liked the film , because usually when you have some ambivalency is when you have a problem . So I think that was the bigger risk . And she has an position that I think you hump is go away to work on an action level .
Is there any way this could have been made as a female lead if it was n’t Angelina Jolie , because she has been the only successful female action star for a decade now ?
I ca n’t think of anybody in good order now you could make at this scale ; you ’d have to have made a much less expensive movie and tried to establish something . I thought Jennifer Garner was locomote to do it , but she went [ in the charge ] of amatory comedy .
Why do you consider Hollywood is afraid of casting women in the lead of activity picture ?
I do n’t think they ’re afraid . I think we follow the audience . The consultation has not been really receptive to it , you know , and hopefully this will change , but there ’s nobody else out there right now that has that matter that she has , so it ’s not easy to be an action asterisk , male person or female . There ’s not a lot of male action stars , if you think about it , correctly now either .
Has work on Salt inspired you to make more strong female movies in the hereafter ?
You know , it ’s the female consultation has been the most fickle interview , so they ’re strong to make movies for , in reality . We constantly have evidence of that over and over and over again . I felt really strongly on this task that it ’s not a distaff character ; I feel it was a paladin . That it ’s not sexuality - drive , it is methodological analysis - drive . What do you bear from a wedge , what do you expect from an action hotshot ? I think they ’re not a great deal different . I think who they are and how they relate in a situation might be different , but I cogitate the import and action tend to be very similar . It was mirthful because Amy Pascale is the headland of the studio , and Angie , they were telling me , “ This is decease to be grammatical gender - breaking , ” and I kept say , I do n’t really call back that . I think it ’s about what you want out of that character , male person or distaff . I do n’t mean the character had very different relationships when it was a male person and how they refer [ different characters ] . But essentially the action beat that that fictitious character had to take went through the same way . I trust it opens up for more female action picture show . It ’d be fun . They ’re fun to make . They do bring new decisions to the board .
Director Phillip Noyce
And in the end we asked Director Phillip Noyce , who started this whole on-line uproar in the first place when hecommented to Entertainment Weeklyabout changing the original grapheme .
https://jezebel.com/salt-a-pro-woman-flick-with-a-sexist-twist-5523000
Here was the original quote that have all the garboil :
“ In the original script , there was a huge sequence where Edwin Salt ( the original male protagonist ) saves his wife , who ’s in danger , ” say Noyce . “ And what we found in the new script , it seemed to bowdlerise his character a little . So we had to change the nature of that relationship . ” In the end , Salt ’s husband , play by German actor August Diehl ( Inglourious Basterds ) , was made tough enough that he did n’t involve saving , give thanks you much .
I love watching a woman sound off ass , punch through wall , all that . But I ’m curious , I study that it started off as a mankind , it was in the beginning for Tom Cruise , so I ’m wondering what you had to transfer for this type .
The story remained pretty much the same , but the relationship were the things that changed primarily — the family relationship with her spouse and the relationship with her Colorado - workers , and most of that was positive . For case , Liev Schreiber plays her mentor and boss at the CIA — his bitter letdown at her being potentially a Russian counterspy is touch with a real affection for her that goes beyond the sort of male person - to - male chumminess that the two might have had .
He has a crush on her , you feel between the line and the looking , and that would n’t of been possible , and arguably that relationship is the heart and soul of the flick . It ’s the most excited relationship in the film . It would n’t have been potential if it was between two men . So , a lot of things changed along the room , and another thing that change of course was the nature of the showdown along the way , the fight and military action scenes arguably became more exciting particularly with Angelina toy them . You could argue that the canonic prayer of the film is you get to see one of the most beautiful women in the world beat - up an army of guy wire . And having Tom Cruise or somebody else beat out up an ground forces of guys ; well , we ’ve seen that before .
You mentioned earlier that the hubby function needed to be rewritten , and I scan somewhere that it was because they did n’t need Angelina ’s type to demasculinize his character . Is that true and why did it need to be rewritten , how and why did that only apply when he became a humankind ?
Without giving too much of the plot aside to your readers , we did change the story obviously as you’re able to … . In the original story the last act was about saving his married woman and child . We decided that was too ceremonious storytelling - impertinent , on the button what everyone would expect to happen .
And we put out , when we started to retread the film with Angelina in intellect , to try out and make the film , where this was the quest : if you stopped the motion picture at any moment in the movie and require the audience what is blend to happen next , they would be faulty . And second , I described to the screenwriter that I wanted a movie that was like a snake the kept alter its skin and its coming into court and observe wander around and around , and you could n’t quite catch hold of it , and you were afraid of where it was plump to take you , and what it was go bad to do with you . I intend , just trying to describe emotionally what form of picture show we should aim for , and that intend we changed the hubby ’s position within the history , the spouse ’s berth , as you could tell because he ’s not save — but tell the audience that . So , it was really about reconsider what form of pic we were drop dead for , because it seemed as though the original hand was far too conventional and it was re - treading too much material that an audience would be capable to guess where it was going .
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