The “dream role” that “meant so much” to Angelina Jolie
There are few actors on the planet with the global star power that Angelina Jolie possesses. As well known for her humanitarian contributions as she is for her excellent acting performances, Jolie is unlike any of her contemporaries in the starkly different worlds of entertainment and charity.
After establishing herself as a considerable leading Hollywood star with 2001’s Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, Jolie went on to deliver nuanced performances in the likes of Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Wanted, Salt, A Might Heart and Changeling, the latter of which earned an Academy Award nomination for ‘Best Actress’.
But like any great actor, Jolie had to begin somewhere, and after beginning her film career in 1993 with an appearance in Cyborg 2, following up with Hackers, George Wallace and Gia, she made her breakthrough with her excellent performance in 1999’s Girl, Interrupted, for which she won the Academy Award for ‘Best Supporting Actress’.
Girl, Interrupted is James Mangold’s psychological drama telling of a young woman, Susanna, played by Winona Ryder, who spends 18 months in a mental institution after attempting suicide. Jolie plays Lisa, a rebellious fellow patient who urges Susanna to stop taking her medication and receiving therapy.
Lisa is a complex and troubled character, but Jolie portrayed her with an excellence that proved that she was a serious acting force to be reckoned with. In a feature with the Golden Globes, Jolie detailed at length her experience of playing Lisa and explained how she was made for the role.
There are correlations between Mangold’s film and Milos Forman’s 1975 picture One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, which also takes place in a mental institution. Jolie “loved” Forman’s film when she was “a little girl”, so to play her part in Girl Interrupted was her “dream role”.
“I made her a composite back history; I didn’t really make one up; somehow, it ended up being me,” the actor said. “They were pieces of my life that made me really want to reach out to people, to feel alive and free. It was my own persona. I didn’t define her; I couldn’t play her thinking I had a mental illness.”
Continuing to express the similarities between her character and herself, Jolie noted, “To be honest, there’s a lot of Lisa in me. I certainly have been told a lot of times that I’m dark or that people think I’m crazy. I didn’t think that Lisa was insane, that she deserved to be locked up. When people said that they felt for Lisa, it meant so much to me.”
Evidently, Jolie feels that she was born to play Lisa, with a troubled background of her own, leaving her free to express a personal level of mental unwellness, and the proof is in the performance, with Jolie rightfully taking home her first Academy Award with her breakthrough appearance.
Check out Jolie in Girl, Interrupted below.
