The curious reason why Angelina Jolie turned down “Charlie’s Angels”

At the end of the 1990s, Angelina Jolie was already a rising star. The actress won the Golden Globe for his work on the series George Wallace(1997) and Gia – Fame and Destruction(1998), in addition to a oscar for the performance in the movie Girl: Interrupted (1999). Naturally, she received an invitation to one of Hollywood’s great productions: the feature The Panthersbased on the series of the same name from the 70s.

It would be another opportunity for Jolie to expose her talent in a big project, now with a really high budget and having none other than Cameron Diaz by your side. A golden chance, correct? Still, the actress curiously declined the invitation – and for a reason that many haven’t guessed.

In an interview given in 2000 to premiere (via 9 Types), the star later enshrined for playing Lara Croft in the film adaptation of tomb Raiderrevealed to have been approached by the production of The Panthers with very clear arguments. Professionals wanted to convince her that the role would portray a “strong woman”.

“When Columbia Pictures sent me the script for The Panthers, they said there were three reasons why I should take it. They said: that there weren’t really good, strong roles for women in the market at that time; that it would make me a big star; and that I would have fun doing it.”

They just didn’t count that Angelina was just running away from this type of work at that moment. His previous performances had the same profile. It was time to breathe new air.

“All my roles so far in Gia – Fame and Destruction, George Wallace, Hearts in love It is The Bone Collector were strong female roles. And the idea of ​​becoming a huge star held absolutely no appeal for me.”

“Parodying their images”

Still during the interview – which, remembering, was granted in the year 2000 -, Angelina Jolie said that she liked some characteristics of the script for The Panthers. The problem is that she did not see herself within that plot. Then highlighted the casting choice, which brought Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore It is Lucy Liu as protagonists.

“Drew Barrymore and Cameron Diaz are already celebrities and will have a lot of fun parodying their images with The Panthers. I’m not at that point in my career, so audiences aren’t going to be as amused to see me running around in high heels chasing bad guys and messing with my hair.”

Angelina Jolie didn’t want to be so big?

However, one of the most curious justifications for Angelina Jolie to have refused The Panthers came in interview to film ink. At the time, in 1999, the artist said that she was intimidated by the size of the project.

“I don’t want to be so exposed being in a really big movie.”

This especially draws attention to the next steps in Jolie’s career. In 2001, she debuted as Lara Croft in the first film of tomb Raider, big screen version of the famous video game. With a massive budget of US$ 115 million, the feature grossed more than twice as much (US$ 274 million) and became a cultural phenomenon of the time and turned the actress into one of the highest paid names in Hollywood at the time.

Even so, in addition to the reduced projection, the actress was looking for work with a lighter emotional load in those days, in view of the wear and tear of previous works – in particular Girl: Interrupted, where she played a sociopath. Therefore, she accepted an invitation to play another successful film at the time: 60 secondsbeside Nicolas Cage. A Associated Press (via Cheat Sheet), stated:

“That would be my fun movie and I would have fun doing it with the guys. I made this film to get my feet back on the ground, because [essa personagem] it’s very… you know… she has two jobs and she knows what she wants, simple things make her happy. And she cuts to the chase, she doesn’t want too much.”