14 DAY TRIAL // While other female stars would literally die to land a part as a Bond girl in one of the James Bond films, it would seem that Angelina Jolie is clearly not one of them. Second fiddle to no one, the stunning actress reveals in the latest issue of Vanity Fair magazine (story via here) that she was actually offered the part of a Bond girl, but she turned it down for a very simple reason: she would rather she played Bond himself.
As it turns out, the decision was an excellent one even if, at the time, chances of Jolie knowing the part would actually come along must have been very slim. Of course, we’re not talking an actual Bond movie, but the spy thriller she’s now promoting, “Salt,” which was initially written with Tom Cruise in mind and whose script had to be rewritten after he dropped out because of conflicting schedules. It’s the closest thing to a woman playing the deadly 007 agent.
“[Angelina is promoting] Salt, directed by Phillip Noyce and co-starring Liev Schreiber, which opens this month and which, with its hanging chad of an ending, seems meant to start a Bourne-like franchise, in this instance chronicling the exploits of the [expletive]-kicking Evelyn Salt. [How Salt came about] really does say something significant about Jolie. It goes to character, as they say in court. ‘It started with a call from Amy [Pascal, co-chairman of Sony Pictures],’ Jolie told me. ‘She asked if I wanted to play a Bond girl. I said, No, I’m not comfortable with that, but I would like to play Bond. We laughed, and then, about a year later, she called back and said, I think I found it’,” the Vanity Fair piece reads.
When Cruise dropped out, the idea of turning the film into one centered on a woman slowly came into shape, though the process was far from an easy one. “You think it would be easy [to change]. You just flip the character from Edwin to Edwina. But it was a lot trickier than we thought. For example, the male character had a child. And he knows he’ll be in danger much of the time. And we realized that, as a woman, if you knew your life was at risk, you’d never have a child. The physicality had to change too. I’m smaller than everybody, so how do I go up against a bunch of men without looking silly? How do I fight? We made her meaner than a guy, and dirty. She uses the walls, the fact that she’s lighter and can throw herself around. It’s the Chihuahua up against the big dogs,” Angelina says of her character.
Much has been said about the transformation of Salt from a male to a female spy in the script, including before the film had wrapped production. Understandably, fans are now incredibly eager to see how it turns out and, luckily for them, they won’t have to wait for that long: “Salt” arrives in US theaters on July 23 and it’s poised to be one of this summer’s blockbusters.