Exclusive! 6 questions with Angelina Jolie

ShowBizCafe.com obtained a very exclusive interview with the multiple award winner and humanitarian actress, Angelina Jolie about her upcoming action film Salt opening July 23rd nationwide. She cleared up some rumors and spoke of her motivation as well as her ideas of new projects.

ShowBizCafe: At this point in your career what validates your work? Is it what critics say? Or?…

Angelina Jolie: I never read what critics say, I think it’s healthy. (laughs) I like the process of making a film, when we’ve worked really hard in making a good film I feel satisfied. I like the team of other actors, and the crew, the director; I just love the family and if we feel we’ve done our best I feel happy. The best obviously is when an audience responds and enjoys the film and people tell you they’ve had a good time, or they’ve learned something, it’s the greatest.

SBC: Do you think the length of 90 minutes works and helps this film?

AJ: I don’t have the longest attention span, so I think it depends on the film. This one is kind of relentless from start to finish, that’s what we tried to do. I don’t think you can handle that for too long.

SBC: Since you did your own stunts, what were your days like? Were you exhausted?

AJ: It seems like so much but it was spread out and I was exhausted. But the kids would come and we would have lunch and I was home by the time the sun went down. There are much harder jobs (laughs).

SBC: Vanity Fair reported you saying that you’d give up acting at some point, is that true?

AJ: Not that I’d give up acting, I think I would just do less at some point. I have a few more stories that I’d like to tell but I can imagine that I’ll just do less and less as my kids grow up. I’d like to do other things before my life is over.

SBC: Cinematically what things do you feel you haven’t done?

AJ: Well there’s been talk about Cleopatra, I haven’t done a historical epic of that nature and she’s always been fascinating to me. I feel that as much as her story [has been done so many times] it’s never been done accurately. Not that any movie can get history perfectly right. There’s no universal truth to history in film but you can get closer and I feel that there’s a lot that hasn’t been explored about her. Theres a lot that would have to come together for that to work.

SBC: Finally, what was your reaction when you first heard about the alleged Russian spies that were recently arrested?

AJ: It was the day before we started press so at first I didn’t believe it. It was bizarre. It was two-fold. The part of me that’s interested in politics felt ‘ I hope this doesn’t affect our relationship with Russia and our relationship with moving forward and [with] Afghanistan and Iran. And all these things and I don’t know what this means.’ The other part of me, that does films thought ‘ what extraordinary timing’ and this is because all through the making of this film we would question: Is this possible? are we bringing back Cold-War propaganda that’s unnecessary? and [is this]something we should leave alone? With no intention on doing anything like that. It just felt true to the story and when I [Evelyn Salt] would have been young that would have been the war so it would make sense to do that sleeper. It was just bizarre when we read it and we have been following it, it’s extraordinary how it’s unfolding