It’s not every day that a fictional action movie gets a real life news story that parallels its plotline with uncanny accuracy as the movie is hitting screens worldwide. That’s what happened the day that I was sitting down with Angelina Jolie to talk about her new Russian spy thriller, “Salt.” American and Russian spies were being exposed and traded almost as if it were planned by the movie company and its internationally connected star.
Q: What was your reaction when you realized that Russian spies were in the news two weeks before your movie opened?
A: We just thought it was just crazy luck in some way. As a citizen, it was bad luck but as somebody who’s worked on a film with these issues … it doesn’t hurt, you know. It’s very, very strange. It’s something that we can’t quite get our heads around. We didn’t intend to make anything that was that current or to try to point a finger at any specific moment in time, so it kind of shocked us. We don’t really know what to do about it. We hope that the film stands on its own, certainly. For fans, it may resonate differently to them now.
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Q: It’s an intriguing story, but what people will be talking about is your nonstop action in this movie. I’m guessing that you did a lot of your stunt work again?
A: Yeah, I did. And I survived. I’m all right except for a few scars and bruises.
Q: And judging by the smirk on your face, you seem really proud of that.
A: I am. I do, and I love it. It’s that little kid in me that gets to jump around and bang on things and shoot things, yet I’m a mom. I spend a lot of my time just feeling like Mommy and it’s nice every once in a while to not feel like Mommy. In truth, my kids love it, too. They love action movies, so it’s one of those things that you also secretly do so that your boys think you’re cool.
Q: If the kids wanted to do something that was potentially dangerous like this, would you encourage them to give it a try?
A: Well, as much as it’s dangerous, I’ve rehearsed a lot. And we have safety harnesses and we have safety time, and I work with the same stunt team I’ve worked with for 10 years and they’re family. So, they’re not going to send me out onto the ledge unless that harness is not going to snap. And I know that, so that’s it. It’s risky, but it’s only dangerous in that I could break an arm or something, not that I would die.
Q: So you encourage not risk taking but a certain adventurous spirit?
A: I don’t think you can stop it. I have so many children. Some children are not like that, and some children are. You know, half of mine are the ones that just must climb the tree, must climb the mountain, must get dirty, must jump off, flip into the pool sideways because it’s just who they are. So you try to give them as much guidance and prepare them but they are who they are.
Q: You’ve said that you and Brad are “a normal mommy and daddy in pajamas” kind of family. How do you manage that normalcy when, really, your family is quite extraordinary?
A: Maybe it’s extraordinary in some magazines or something, but at home it’s not. We’re really just a very loving family. We’re very close, and we don’t read magazines. I don’t read reviews. We don’t watch those TV shows, either. We just don’t do those things so we kind of keep out everyone’s perceptions of us. We just kind of go to work and come home. We make a habit of having dinner together every night. We take turns working. Half of the kids are with me now, half are with him. We try to keep a sense of reality into their lives. What’s truly real, not Hollywood real.
Travel expenses were paid by Sony Pictures and WGN-TV.
Watch my interviews 5 to 9 a.m. Monday through Friday on WGN-Ch. 9 Morning News. My radio show airs 9 a.m. to noon Sundays on WGN-AM 720 and wgnradio.com. You can also hear more by going to wgntv.com/deanslist.