Angelina Jolie “Wanted” to die
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EXCLUSIVE
SPOILER WARNING: This guest post by Los Angeles Times movie writer Chris Lee gives away some major plot twists in the film ‘Wanted,’ so don’t read if you were waiting to see it on DVD!
Angelina Jolie did not want to ride off into the sunset. At least, not when it came to portraying a sexed-up super assassin in the summer action hit ‘Wanted.’
The Oscar-winning actress now says that she accepted the role of the sleek killer named Fox only after the filmmaker agreed to a crucial script revision: She didn’t want her character still breathing when the final credits rolled. It was a major change from the story in the graphic novel of the same name but, as anyone familiar with both already knows, there were plenty of huge differences between Mark Millar’s dark comic-book tale and the Hollywood adaptation.
‘In the original, she doesn’t kill herself,’ Jolie said. ‘I actually changed the ending. I said, ‘If she was to find out she had killed people unjustly and was a part of something that wasn’t fair, then she should take her own life.’’
In a penthouse suite at the Beverly Hilton Hotel last week, during a conversation about her latest drama ‘The Changeling,’ Jolie got to talking about what had drawn her to the role of Fox, a member of a 1,000-year-old secret society that murders people who are destined to cause some unspecified tragedy in the future.
‘I liked ‘Wanted’ because I liked the idea that she was somebody who believed she was delivering justice to bad people,’ Jolie said. “For instance, if you knew Hitler was coming and you could take him out, would you? I liked that.’
‘Wanted’ director Timur Bekmambetov failed to mention the Jolie-requested ending when I interviewed him last summer. Jolie told me that she frames her choices to appear in bombastic popcorn thrillers like the ‘Tomb Raider’ franchise and ‘Wanted’ as a method of counter-balancing her more somber films.
‘First of all, let’s not over-think it,’ Jolie said, her back to a panoramic view of the city’s glittering nighttime horizon. ‘It’s an action movie. As much as I love to be home with my kids, it gives me an excuse to go out and by physical. To do different things. Too many films like ‘The Changeling’ or ‘A Mighty Heart’ and it takes a toll after a while. They’re so emotional!’
-- Chris Lee
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Bottom: Credit: Martin Schoeller / Los Angeles Times.
